Do you support amending the charter to eliminate the position of unelected City Manager and creating a strong elected executive Mayor?

I am a firm believer in the strong executive Mayor model. One of the main deficits of the current system is the concentration of too much power in the hands of a position that is not directly accountable to the voters. My proposal is to remove the mayor from the Council and make the position responsible for the executive “branch” of the city government. A strong Mayor should also have a veto over items passed by the Council (and the Council should have an override provision).

I do believe the City needs competent, professional staff, so I would favor writing into the Charter a few of the key job requirements so the City avoids pure cronyism. However, I strongly support shifting most or all of the existing enumerated powers to the Mayor.

Again, my baseline value on this question is accountability. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about Brennan, Strimling or Snyder – or about Jennings, Sauschuck, or any other Manager – the ultimate decisions need to reside in the hands of the people that the voters elect. That’s just a fundamental of a healthy democracy.

Do you support amending the charter to shift funds from the police to other priorities and to create a fully-resourced independent citizen oversight board of the Police?

Shift funds away from the police: Like my answers above, I do not believe year-to-year budget decisions are items that should be written into the Charter. I do believe policing needs reform and better oversight (see below), but the decisions about the police budget should be made by a strong Mayor and the Council.

Oversight Board: Yes, I support such an oversight board. This is an area where trust is of the utmost importance, and I believe a truly independent board would go a long way toward ensuring that the City is getting the type and quality of policing that it desires.

Do you support amending the charter to allow for universal resident voting in city elections?

Yes. My themes are “accountability” and “responsiveness” in City government. A critical component of making each measure better is increasing participation in voting among those impacted by City policy. That means, in part, expanding the franchise to non-citizen residents. I strongly support this change. 

Do you support amending the charter to guarantee basic needs like shelter, housing, Pre-K, public transportation, green space, and public health for all residents in need?

I understand the sentiment of this question, but these issues are too general and involve too many other factors to effectively write them into the Charter. I personally support housing for everyone, Pre-K for all student, Medicare-for-All, preservation of parks, and robust public transportation – but I don’t believe writing “guarantees” for each into the Charter will get the City any closer to achieving these goals. We should continue to elect people who have these same priorities and allow them to do the hard work of policy-making toward these goals.

Do you support amending the charter to require union labor on city-funded construction projects as well as creating a Department of Labor to protect workers?

Union labor on city-funded project: Yes, I support this change. I am outside counsel to the Maine AFL-CIO, and several other unions in Maine – and I have worked on Labor issues in the Legislature for 15+ years, including requiring PLA’s on school construction projects. The City should support workers who are organized and the Employers who hire them.

Municipal Department of Labor: Undecided. Public enforcement is something that sounds good to policy-makers, but works less well in practice. In my day job, I see the benefits of greater private enforcement of labor and employment rights. Typically, bureaucracies are underfunded and are too often captured by the interests they are designed to regulate. I would prefer to write policy that grants employees the right to take private action and allows generous recovery. Finally, the City has many other pressing needs that will require our resources. I would prefer to keep those dollars flowing to schools and social services. 

Do you support amending the charter to expand the number of district seats, eliminate at-large seats, strengthen the council’s legislative oversight, and adequately pay members of the city council?

Expand number of districts: Leaning against, but will listen to other arguments. There is a tipping point somewhere between appropriate representation and an unwieldy body. I’m not sure where that is, but my next answer will certainly make a big improvement without expanding the overall number.

Eliminate At-Large seats: I strongly favor eliminating the At-Large seats AND I favor removing the Mayor from the Council – which would then allow the creation of 9 Council districts. We need the Council to be more responsive to the people, and making smaller districts is one way to facilitate that kind of change. Further, smaller districts would likely help increase the racial and class diversity on the Council (especially when combined with municipal public financing) due to the composition of our neighborhoods. In sum: smaller is better.

Strengthen the Council’s legislative oversight: I don’t know what PFC means by this. I am open to ideas in this area – in particular regarding constituent service staff for the Council.

Adequate pay for the members of the Council: I am open to paying Councilors more – though I would probably stop short of full-time pay. The State Legislature offers a pretty good model – meaning there is modest compensation representing a part-time job. I think this would work well, in particular when combined with implementing staff for the Council.

Do you support amending the charter to provide Clean Elections for all municipal races with mandatory funding?

Public financing for municipal elections: Yes, I support establishing public financing of municipal elections in the Charter. Few people in Maine have more experience than me regarding campaign finance – as I have been the E.D. for the Maine Senate Democrats, the Chair of the Maine Democratic Party, a board member of the Maine Citizens for Clean Elections (representing Labor), and counsel to many candidates and organizations before the Maine Ethics Commission. I firmly believe that the promise of public financing has been fulfilled in one specific way: it vastly expands the universe of people who would consider running for office. This is an unalloyed benefit to our politics, and is a benefit that could help City governance. Politics suffers when it is just the province of people who are retired or wealthy. Public financing is a significant measure in the battle to even the playing field in politics.

Mandatory funding: I support funding a public financing system, but it is not appropriate to do so in the Charter. The Mayor and the Council need to weigh spending decisions each year in the City budget without this type of constraint. What if there is a year when there is an emergency and more money is needed to keep a school open? This is just one example…but the point is that we should not elevate public financing above other critical, progressive priorities with this type of guarantee. The answer to funding a public financing program is to elect a Mayor and a Council that continues to support the program. The State has never had a problem funding the system for the State House and Senate – because there has always been a pro-public financing majority in the Legislature. That is the right way to ensure funding for this type of program.

Do you support amending the charter to provide independent budgeting authority for the School Board?

It depends on other reforms. My biggest proposal regarding the Mayor’s authority is to require the Mayor to initiate the City budget process by proposing a full City budget – in the same way that the State budget is initiated by a full proposal from the Governor. I have come to this proposal after many years of involvement in the Legislature and many hours of advocacy for recent school budgets. Fundamentally, we must reform the school budget. Education is the #1 issue for me, and the success of the City relies in large part in advancing educational attainment for all students. The Portland Promise is an important foundational guide for this work – and it has been underfunded every year.

The question we face now is how best to change this history. I believe putting the Mayor in charge of the budget proposal will force into the open a more honest and accessible conversation about all of the City’s priorities and about appropriate taxation. Right now, we never really have a conversation about the overall percentage of the City budget devoted to schools vs. all other programs. It ends up as a 50-50 (ish) split just based on inertia and tradition. Further, the discussion about tax rates happens too late in the process when most of the public advocacy has ended.

Requiring the Mayor to submit an initial budget proposal will go a long way toward having a strong Mayor system – and I believe it will lead to more resources for schools. That said, I would look at independent authority for the School Board if other reforms, like my idea, fail. Something needs to change.

Do you support amending the charter to create an elected Public Advocate, and elected City Clerk, and an elected City Attorney?

Elected Public Advocate: I am fine with this proposal. My themes are greater accountability and greater responsiveness, so adding another voice of the people makes some sense.

Elected City Clerk: Undecided. This seems like a solution in search of a problem – since I am unaware of complaints regarding the City’s administration of elections. I’ll keep an open mind, though, if there is a reason to make this change.

Elected City Attorney: Firmly opposed. I am an attorney. I know lots of attorneys. You do not want your legal advice coming from someone who merely wins a popularity contest. Look, I understand where this is coming from – some folks in the City have been unhappy with the legal advice given by the current City attorney. That’s fine. Reasonable minds can disagree about the law. However, electing the City attorney is the absolute wrong reform. I would propose granting authority to a strong Mayor to hire an attorney, within certain qualifications. I could even see allowing the Council to do the same. I have even read about other municipalities who maintain a municipal judge to adjudicate disputes – an idea I would explore.

As a general proposition, I am in favor of a strong Mayor system – and that means the Mayor should exert much more control over the hiring of top administrators, including legal counsel.

Do you support amending the charter to create a municipally-owned power and broadband utility?

Undecided. I simply don’t know enough about this type of policy to have a fully formed opinion at this time. In particular, I would want to know if such a move would drain resources from other more pressing issues – like schools and housing. I have an open mind to this idea, as I know it is in place in other municipalities in Maine…I just want to know more.