BANGOR, Maine — City councilors admitted Tuesday that they are starting to feel the weight of public pressure. They recognize that they are fractured. They acknowledge that their credibility has been damaged.

The group of nine met for two hours to begin talking about their vision for Bangor, and while they made significant headway on that topic, the meeting took the shape of a healing session.

They didn’t agree on everything — far from it — but each councilor took a step toward cooperation and collaboration both in articulating a new city vision and outlining attributes they hope to find in a new city manager.

City Council Chairman Richard Stone, who has taken a low-key approach to bringing his colleagues together, said he thought Tuesday’s workshop was a good start. The next step, he said, will be to solidify the city’s vision statement, back that up with concrete goals and then communicate it to the public.

Some Bangor residents have challenged the council over its decision in late October to force City Manager Ed Barrett to retire. At least one is seeking to recall the five councilors who last month affirmed the initial vote to part ways with Barrett.

At Tuesday’s meeting, none of the councilors discussed the recall or Barrett. They wanted to move forward, and they did. Along those lines, each councilor had the opportunity Tuesday to offer a rough draft of what a vision statement could look like. The main reason the council cited in asking Barrett to retire was its desire to move in a different direction. That notion has evolved into creating a new vision for Bangor.

While there were disagreements over whether the updated vision statement needs to be general or specific, there was common ground. For instance, they all agreed that the city needs to be more aggressive when it comes to economic development.

“There is no sense of urgency,” Councilor Gerry Palmer said, referring to the city’s attitude on growth. “We’re plodding along.”

They also all agreed that Bangor’s best asset is its quality of place.

But the only decision made at Tuesday’s meeting was to forgo hiring a facilitator to help the council with its vision statement. Councilors felt that they don’t need one anymore. That was a big step that not only saves the city some money but also shows that its councilors can get along and perhaps come together, Stone said.

The council plans to have one more vision session within the next week or two before rolling out its consensus to the public, something some councilors feel is way overdue.

“The reason people keep asking us is because we told them we wanted to move in a new direction,” said Councilor Cary Weston. “People are waiting. People want answers.”

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