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Nineteen people seek seats on a panel that may reshape how Maine's largest city is governed.

By TOM BELL, Staff Writer May 31, 2009

PORTLAND — Most residents look confused when Laurie Davis tells them she's running for the charter commission. They have no idea what it is, Davis said.

"They apologize. I say, 'That's OK. It's been almost 25 years since we've done this.'"

The other 18 candidates are facing the same problem as they struggle to whip up interest in the June 9 election and vie for one of the commission's nine empty seats. The candidates are puzzled, though, by the apathy because they see the commission as a vehicle for making huge changes that will affect the way the city operates for generations.

Think of it as the city's own constitutional convention. The commission will decide whether Portland needs a new governing structure and if so, bring a proposal to voters for approval – perhaps in one or two years.

The big issue is whether voters should elect a mayor and how much power the position should wield. In the current system, the City Council chooses a mayor from its own ranks. However, the mayor's power is limited to running council meetings and making committee appointments.

The question of whether Portland should have an elected mayor has been debated for decades. But now, the city appears poised to chart a new course. Most of the candidates running for the commission support having city voters elect a mayor.

Some commission candidates would give the mayor additional powers – such as the ability to hire the city manager and submit a budget. Others, though, would give the mayor no more power than that of a city councilor.

Portland hasn't had an elected mayor since voters in 1923 approved a ballot measure that eliminated the post and replaced it with a council-appointed city manager.

At the time, Portland and other Maine cities were swept up in a national clean-government movement that sought to replace big-city bosses and corrupt political machines with professional city managers.

In Portland, businesses supported the new form of government. So did the Ku Klux Klan, a force in Maine politics at the time. The Klan was alarmed by a surge in immigration and the growing political influence of the city's Catholic wards.

Referendums were held in 1970 and 1975 to return to an elected mayor. Both were defeated. A 1986 charter commission decided not to put an elected-mayor system before voters. Attempts to establish a charter commission failed in 1995 and 1996.

Today, the political climate is different.

The movement to upend the status quo is in part a response to recent events.

The school department's failure to manage its budget two years ago – which resulted in a surprise $2.5 million budget deficit in the middle of the year – raised questions about whether City Hall should have more financial oversight of the school department's finances.

The City Council has been divided on several high-profile issues, including the redevelopment of the Maine State Pier and school consolidation. Even small issues are often decided by 5-4 votes, with the five Democrats on the council voting in a bloc against the three members of the Green party and lone Republican, Cheryl Leeman.

The public perceives the City Council as a "bickering, feuding, divisive body," said Benson Monaghan, a commission candidate in District 1 and supporter of an elected mayor.

Monaghan's opponent, Benjamin Chipman, said an elected mayor is key to improving the city's economy.

"We need a real visible leader of the city to promote everything Portland has to offer," he said.

At-large candidate James Cohen, a former city councilor, had long opposed allowing voters to elect the mayor, but changing public attitudes have persuaded him to re-think his opposition, he said.

"I am concerned that our form of government has become not as responsive to the public and the changing world as we need to be," he said.

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