EASTPORT — A heated dispute between a resident and a member of the Shellfish Commission abruptly ended an Eastport Port Authority board meeting Monday, sparking a shouting match in the parking lot that triggered a police investigation.
The clash marks the latest escalation in growing tension among city leaders, Port Authority officials and members of the Eastport Coalition for Healthy Oceans, or ECHO, who demand accountability over a proposed underwater data center off Kendall Head.
Last month, the Port Authority board voted to file as an intervenor in opposition to DeepGreen Western Passage SPV’s preliminary permit application. The company submitted a 48-month application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to study unique tides off Eastport’s northern coast as a power source for a proposed subsea data center.
Intervenors faced a Monday filing deadline.
At Monday’s regular meeting, Port Authority Executive Director Chris Gardner acknowledged that the agency’s Bangor law firm, Rudman Winchell, mistakenly filed as a neutral intervenor earlier that day.
Dr. Robin Hadlock-Seeley and ECHO member Birdy Velveteen pointed out the mistake to Gardner, who publicly thanked Velveteen at the meeting for raising the issue on Facebook. The agency quickly corrected the error and submitted its opposition filing to FERC just before the deadline.
Dispute over cruise ship revenues
During Monday’s meeting, an argument erupted between Velveteen and Gary Small, who shares the Shellfish Commission vice chairmanship with his brother, Earl Small. The clash began shortly after Velveteen answered Gardner’s question regarding ownership of the breakwater.
The Eastport Port Authority operates the Breakwater Terminal, managing commercial and recreational vessel traffic at the pier in what stands as the deepest natural seaport in the continental United States.
The tense exchange began about 10 minutes before the end of the meeting when a resident asked: “Does the business model of Port Authority look at the increased business into the town with the cruise ships coming in? Where’s the money? Dollars and cents. Does the Port Authority get a bunch of money for the ships coming in?”
On the meeting audio recording, Velveteen can be heard answering out of turn, “Yes, they do.”
Witnesses noted that Velveteen sat on the floor near the exit, speaking from that position.
“Yes, we absolutely do,” Gardner said, beginning to answer the question on behalf of the Port Authority. “The question has been asked: How much of that money goes to the city?”
“Zero dollars,” Velveteen interjected before Gardner finished his answer.
Gardner then asked her: “Would you be better served if the city owned the breakwater? Say it cost them $300,000 a year to have the breakwater. Right? And then I handed them $300,000. I handed them all the cruise ship revenues. Right? Would you feel better about that?”
Velveteen attempted to respond.
“I think it would be better if the municipality owned the breakwater simply because…,” she began, before the room erupted into what many interviewed by Monitor Local described as “noise.”
Rhonda Stevens, who sits on the Eastport City Council and was near Velveteen during the first part of the confrontation, called it “scoffing and ridicule,” adding that “things escalated very quickly” from that point.
Velveteen pressed Gardner on his position, referencing a statement from City Manager Brian Schuth in response to a Freedom of Access Act request. Schuth had told her the city drew no money directly from the cruise ships, a statement Schuth later said lacked the Port’s context.
The punchy exchange drew some laughter that can be heard on the recording.
“Birdy, Birdy,” Gardner said. “You don’t like it? Every single dollar goes back into the city.”
Gardner called the disagreement a “lack of understanding” by the public.
“One hundred percent of the revenues that come into the Eastport Port Authority are directly to the benefit of the people of Eastport, Maine, who own this business,” Gardner said. “If the Port Authority didn’t exist, the people would still own the breakwater. The people would still own the fish feeder. The people would still own the Estes Head operation. They would still own this building. They would own the Coast Guard station.”
Gardner took responsibility for not making that explanation clear enough to the public, but Eastport resident Rob Bernardo, who was in attendance, defended Gardner. He said Gardner “fully explained why Eastport needed the cruise ships and where the money was being spent,” adding that offhand commentary from those in attendance was accusatory and “caused the mood in the room to change.”
Tensions flare in meeting room
Eastport resident Laurie Stone disagreed. She told Monitor Local that the exchange between Velveteen and Gardner was not what created the uncomfortable environment, describing the tension as palpable throughout the entire meeting.
She said she had asked what she thought was a reasonable question and found board members condescending, which she feels is a pattern when women ask questions before this board.
Stone had questioned whether a conflict of interest exists regarding Kevin and Karen Raye, who advertise with cruise lines that dock at the port while running for seats on the Port Authority board.
The situation could arise if voters elect Karen Raye, now an appointed councilor, to the City Council and her fellow councilors designate her chair, while Kevin Raye runs unopposed for the Port Authority board.
The Port Authority charter designates the council chairman as a board member. Stone raised concerns because Raye’s Mustard, which the Raye family owns and operates, advertises with cruise lines that dock in Eastport.
Board Member Bob Peacock said there is no conflict, noting that he and his wife, Jeanne Peacock, had a similar arrangement when she was council chairwoman.
That exchange ultimately led to Gardner asking Velveteen if she would prefer municipal ownership of the breakwater.
Attendees offered differing accounts of the crowd’s reaction, describing it as either laughter or jeers. An audio recording reviewed by Monitor Local, however, captured a mix of laughter and shouting, including a voice rising above the noise to yell at Velveteen.
Witnesses identified the speaker as Gary Small.
“You don’t even work for a living!” Small shouted. “We fish!”
Velveteen, who told Monitor Local she runs a home-based business designing prosthetics, said Small moved quickly toward her while shouting in a threatening manner. Audio captures Velveteen screaming: “Back the f— up! That’s enough! Absolutely not!”
“That’s enough,” City Manager Brian Schuth said. “Mr. Chairman, would you accept a motion to adjourn?”
An unidentified Port Authority board member yelled: “Motion to adjourn! Go home!”
“Talk in the parking lot,” Schuth added as the shouting continued.
City Councilor Rhonda Stevens, who sat next to Velveteen during the meeting, can be heard on the recording shouting: “Gary! Gary! Go!”
As the meeting adjourned, Small continued to advance toward Velveteen, who screamed: “Back the f— up! Get away from me!”
Stevens later told Monitor Local that her initial intervention was an effort to de-escalate the room.
“When I first yelled, ‘Gary, stop,’ I was simply trying to get him to stop talking,” Stevens said. “This was at least the second, possibly the third, topic that evening with which he had expressed frustration. … My hope was that he would stop engaging and save his thoughts for another time.”
Stevens explained that “the second time I yelled ‘Stop!’ was because, from my vantage point, it appeared that Gary was moving toward Birdy.”
“That was the last thing I wanted to see happen,” Stevens said. “As it turned out, he was moving toward the exit rather than toward her. However, Birdy was positioned relatively close to the doorway, and when Gary paused to allow the doorway to clear, he ended up standing very near her. By that point, both were visibly agitated.”
Stevens said she did not think Small was going to strike Velveteen, but she could understand why Velveteen felt threatened.
Police investigate parking lot confrontation
During a telephone call Tuesday with Monitor Local, Gardner called it a “sad” and “unfortunate” situation.
Velveteen maintained Tuesday that Small “charged her” at the end of the meeting.
Small did not reply to a request for comment from Monitor Local.
Hadlock-Seeley, who attended the meeting and witnessed the confrontation, told Monitor Local that “a woman’s voice is her first line of defense.” She said she felt as though the Port Authority board’s failure to control its meeting made her less safe in attendance.
“It was really scary,” Stone said of the experience, adding that she asked Gardner after the meeting for his thoughts on what transpired. She said he replied, “What do you expect from a bunch of bawdy fishermen?”
Stone said that response was insufficient to address the situation.
What happened inside the meeting, however, is only half the picture.
Witnesses said Small went outside, where he was believed to be awaiting a ride home from the meeting, when Velveteen approached him. Velveteen claimed Small was standing within a few feet of her truck, aggressively shouting at her as she got in and turned the key, illuminating him in the headlights.
Shouting can be heard on an audio file later obtained by Monitor Local.
Velveteen said she stepped out of her vehicle at that point because Small would be in her blind spot if she drove past him, which felt like a less safe option. Because he was still shouting at her, she said she asked him, “Are you trying to intimidate me?”
Security footage awaits release
Gardner told Monitor Local he reviewed the Port Authority’s external camera feed and believed Velveteen was the aggressor for leaving her car to confront Small. Velveteen does not deny turning on her car, then exiting it to speak with Small, but said the video will show Small in front of her truck in a stance she described as a “‘readiness to draw’ stance that’s unmistakable to someone familiar with guns.”
Monitor Local requested a copy of the video before it was shared with police and was told by Gardner, “If I release it, I’ll release it to the public.”
Eastport Police Chief Marc Podschlne confirmed the video had not yet been released to police at that time.
A copy of the footage was later provided to the Eastport Police Department, where officials told Monitor Local there is an active investigation into claims of harassment and other allegations.
After making a written request for a copy under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act, or FOAA, Monitor Local received an email from the Port Authority’s freedom of information officer, Timothy Pease of Rudman Winchell, that read: “In accordance with Maine’s FOAA, I have directed Mr. Gardner to provide me with the security footage. … I will need to review it carefully to make sure it does not include any information that would be exempt from disclosure under Maine’s FOAA.”
Pease said it could take until Oct. 28 before the footage is available for release.
Next steps in data center debate
As for the Port Authority’s intervenor status on the DeepGreen project, it joins the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik, the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association and the Conservation Law Foundation as the latest intervenors moving to join the FERC filing.
Other intervenors include Save Passamaquoddy Bay, Eastport Community Solar, the Center for Biological Diversity, local residents Carrie Cobb and Gary Fronheiser, the National Marine Fisheries Service — Greater Atlantic Region and the city of Eastport.
Karen Raye, who is the Eastport City Council liaison on the data center project, said she will hold an Eastport Community Conversation on proposed amendments to the permanent data center ban passed by the council in September.
Raye invited ECHO to participate in that work, with a meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. Nov. 14 at the Eastport Senior and Community Center at 1 Staniels Road.
The next step in the permitting process requires FERC to accept motions to intervene and schedule public hearings on the filings.
