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The talk of Bangor today concerns this past Monday night's meeting of the Bangor City Council, where Councilor Charlie Longo made comments of Gov. Paul LePage and the city's pending budget crisis.

To begin with, Longo called the governor "a bully."

Then, towards the end of the public meeting (about 7:50 into the video), Longo said this, "I say this with the utmost respect. But, you know, if Gov. LePage is not busy enough to go to Jamaica, if Gov. LePage isn’t busy enough to go.....I have not personally confirmed this but folks say that he hits the bars pretty heavy. If he has enough time to make it to those meetings or those junkets, to those nightclubs, whatever it is, he has the time to sit down with our mayor, with our city councilors, to discuss the issues that face the state of Maine.

Longo went on to say, "I don’t care if it’s at the Sea Dog or at Diamonds, I will sit down with Gov. LePage anywhere to discuss this issue"

During the comments you can see councilors start to cringe and move around in their chairs, some whispered to themselves, one began to raise his hand and one couldn't wait to speak.

Councilor Ben Sprague immediately jumped in at the end of the Longo's offering to meet LePage and said, "That comment was completely out of line.  That was an embarrassment to this body."

Longo then goes on to apologize, somewhat, saying that "at the end of the day we need to fight for our constituents in every way possible."

Longo says that he has called the governor's office to apologize for his comments.

With the possible loss of income from the state's revenue sharing program, Bangor, along with every other municipality in the state and their taxpayers await what their tax bills will be.

What do you think, did Councilor Longo go too far?

 

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