LEWISTON- City officials are looking into how they might be able to assist victims and survivors of the 2023 mass shooting.
The City Council discussed what role the city could and should play, voting 7-0 to continue the discussion to the next meeting.
Ward Two Councilor Susan Longchamps introduced the resolution with the hope that city leaders would “agree to sit at a table and figure out if there are still needs for victims and survivors,” Longchamps said. “And if there are, how can we meet those needs, as a city? That’s all I’m asking.”
The resolution called for city staff to conduct some form of an assessment of needs, with a report back to the Council.
Longchamps noted that her peers did not want local “nonprofits to be dragged into this, and that’s not what I want to do.”
“I want to make sure that the people that were directly affected by that mass shooting have been taken care of and that they continue to be taken care of,” she said. “And it is our responsibility to do that.”
The Mayor and Councilors at their Tuesday night meeting
Council President David Chittim (Ward Six) agreed with a plan that calls for identifying ways to help.
“I’m all in favor of finding out what needs are still out there,” Chittim said. “I’m not at all in favor of trying to assign blame or say that there were mistakes or errors made.”
Several individuals have expressed concern that money donated after the mass shooting was misallocated to local nonprofits, and are calling for an investigation.
Donors were able to choose between two funds: one that went straight to helping victims directly, and another that was to be distributed to local organizations to help with community recovery.
There has been no evidence seen of misallocation of any funds distributed, something Chittim spoke on during the Tuesday discussion.
“There has been a full disclosure of the money that went into the city, through the city, to the Maine Community Foundation, and from the Maine Community Foundation through its two funds to the victims and the nonprofits,” Chittim said. “I think those questions have been answered over and over and over again and I’m not certain… that this Council or anyone can answer those questions to the satisfaction of people who are not satisfied with the answers that have already been provided.”
“The political agenda of ‘money was stolen from donors and given to undeserving recipients’ is patently false.”
Ward Five Councilor Chrissy Noble agreed that the Council didn’t need to “drag nonprofits across the coals” but that “I think that it would do right by the people who were affected by the shooting for us to just take the time to look into what they’re asking us to look into.”
Noble said she personally knew two people who still have unmet needs resulting from the shooting.
Some members of the Council expressed concerns with parts of the plan, and City Administrator Bryan Kaenrath asked the Council to better define what success looks like for the proposed effort.
Mayor Carl Sheline stated that he was “concerned about the legal ramifications of all this,” asking for the proposal to be checked by the city’s attorney, first. “I am worried about exposing people’s confidential information.”
Regarding the rest of the plan, Sheline said, “We can assess what needs are still available, and then connect them with resources. I think that’s what success looks like.”
Ward One Councilor Joshua Nagine said he wanted to help identify resources available “to help people.”
Nagine stated that it was “incredibly important to identify these pieces that people have questions about,” and that it was “important that we… answer the questions we can.”
“I’m just not sure that (the current plan) does that.”
Mayor Sheline asked Longchamps if she was willing to let legal staff review the plan prior to a vote, and Longchamps agreed, so long as it would be revisited at the next meeting.
Kaenrath said that he would meet with legal, get their feedback, make necessary edits, then come back to Council with another draft at their next meeting.