PORTLAND, Maine — With the Portland Charter Commission expected to vote this week on whether to ratify its proposed governance model for the city, eight former mayors are urging members not to shift approve the proposed changes.
The commission of nine elected and three appointed members has worked for nearly a year to make changes to the city's governing document, including controversial proposal to shift power from the city manager to the mayor.
Former Portland Mayor Jill Duson said the current proposal would "put all the power in the hands of a single person."
"You've got a balance now between public policy input and professional management, and the charter commission just wants to upend that," Tom Allen, a former Portland mayor, city councilor and Congressman.
The eight mayors gathered Monday and seven more signed a letter to the Charter Commission opposing the change.
"We respectfully urge the Charter Commission to vote against final ratification of this proposal," the letter states, in part. "We recognize that while our current system of government may not be perfect and can be improved, creating such a powerful mayor is a risky gamble that will inevitably result in a more political, divisive, and less inclusive form of city government."
But members of the Charter Commission who support the change argued that instead of giving too much power to the mayor, it would shift power to an elected official who would be accountable to voters.
"Decisions like this, that are fundamentally political in nature should rest with a politically elected person, someone who is directly accountable to voters," Commission member Michael Kebede said.
The plan calls for the mayor to become chief executive of the city and would allow the mayor to create task forces for issues not discussed by the city council, help identify the city's priorities, appoint various department heads and set City Council agendas. However, the mayor would not longer have a City Council vote.
As proposed, the city manager position would become chief operating officer and would report to the mayor. The COO would continue managing the day to day operations of the city and the mayor would direct the COO in preparation of the city budget.
"We're leaving policy, political decisions up to the elected officials, and the administration stays in the hands of city staff," Charter Commissioner Zack Barowitz said.
"I believe that the compromised governance model that we plan to ratify tomorrow would take Portland into a more democratic, more accountable and more transparent direction," Kebede said. "I believe it would also actually reduce the power of the most powerful person in city government right now. And I think that one way that it would reduce the power of the most powerful person in the city is that it would make that person directly accountable to voters, rather than only accountable to majority of people on the council."
You can view the proposed Governance Model here.
The Portland Charter Commission is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The commission is expected to vote to ratify the language for a number of changes to the city charter at that meeting.
If approved by commissioners, their proposed changes to the charter would then go before Portland voters in November.
You can view the full agenda meeting, and other changes to the city charter being considered by the commission here.