The State & Federal Relations staff at Maine Municipal Association recently produced a 24-page Municipal Issues Paper, which MMA hopes will serve as conversation starter among local government officials and candidates for state and local offices in the November 2018 elections. The paper addresses many important topics, including the history of Municipal Revenue Sharing, unfunded state mandates, broadband connectivity, recreational marijuana use – and much more.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Environmental Protection are collaborating to provide free technical assistance to municipalities and businesses in an array of project areas, from Brownfields cleanups to energy efficiency to food waste. The deadline to express interest is July 31.

The Maine Municipal Association is currently in the process of nominating and electing the 2018-2020 Legislative Policy Committee.  A nomination packet was mailed to the key municipal official (Manager or Chair of Selectboard) on April 26th with a return deadline of Wednesday, June 13. 

Copies of the Nominations Memo, Nominee Biography and Nomination Form for each of the LPC/Senate Districts can be found here.
 

Maine Municipal Association is seeking nominations for its most prestigious annual award, the MMA Ethel N. Kelley Memorial Award. The award recognizes distinguished service at the municipal government and community level, and will be presented at MMA’s Annual Convention, on Oct. 3.

The 2017 Fiscal Survey request mailed on April 30 to key municipal officials asks for important financial information about Maine’s communities. The data request is for municipal fiscal year 2016, which, depending on your municipal budget process, could be the fiscal year ending December 2016 or June 2017 for mid-year cycles. The information gathered in this survey is beneficial for federal, state and local government officials, as it is used to generate reports such as the U.S. Census Bureau’s State and Local Government Finance Report and MMA’s Fiscal Survey Report.

Maine Municipal Association’s 2018 Nominating Committee is pleased to put forth a slate of candidates to join the organization’s 12-member Executive Committee on Jan. 1, 2019, including the vice president. Our current President is Linda Cohen, Mayor in the City of South Portland. Linda will be succeeded by Mary Sabins, Town Manager in Vassalboro.

The law firm of Drummond Woodsum will hold a workshop for municipal officials about the new state law authorizing the legal use of recreational and medical marijuana. The workshop will be held at the Drummond Woodsum offices in Portland on May 24.

The Maine Rural Water Association will be offering its free "Onboarding New Employees: Maximizing Success" class on May 23 in York and May 24 in Lewiston. The class will assist managers, superintendents, foreman, etc. with "growing" and successfully retaining qualified staff.

The Maine Development Foundation is promoting ICL’s “Leadership Intensive” program, a seven-month, 14-day program aimed at senior and upper management leaders in public, private and non-profit organizations. There are scholarship opportunities available for municipal employees, through the Al Curran Scholarship Fund.

On May 2, 2018, the Maine Legislature voted to override Governor LePage’s veto of LD 1719, “An Act to Implement a Regulatory Structure for Adult Use Marijuana.” This new law, which was enacted as an emergency, takes effect immediately, and completely replaces the existing recreational marijuana statutes.  For those municipalities wondering whether to extend their moratorium ordinances, or enact prohibition ordinances, you can relax.  MMA’s Marijuana Resource area is a good source of information on this topic.