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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2011
VOL. 3 NO. 199
PORTLAND, ME
PORTLAND’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
699-5801
FREE
ABOVE: Mayoral candidate Michael Brennan listens to initial results Tuesday at a campaign function during the first round of Portland’s mayoral election. (DAVID CARKHUFF PHOTO) RIGHT: Ballot scanning personnel wade through the ranked choice system of counting Wednesday at City Hall. (CASEY CONLEY PHOTO)
And the winner is ... Mayor Brennan After 15 rounds, Brennan wins mayor's race with 55 percent of the vote; swearing-in set for Dec. 5 BY CASEY CONLEY THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN
Michael Brennan emerged last night as the winner of Portland's first elected mayor's race in 88 years, defeating Ethan Strimling and 13 other candidates in a crowded race that was decided after 15 rounds of instant runoffs. He will be sworn in on Dec. 5 for a four-year term. Once all the votes were counted and re-allocated, Brennan finished with about 55 percent of the vote, receiving 8,971 votes. Strimling finished second with 7,138 votes, or about 44 percent of the total vote, according to unofficial results. Nick Mavodones finished a distant third. During brief remarks after the final results were announced, Brennan thanked his family, his opponents and the voters who supported him, saying he felt "incredibly grateful."
"I will do everything I can over the next four years to work with all these other people who were part of the process to fulfill the dream and to fulfill the intent of what the charter change that was proposed last year, so that four years from now we will look back and say having a mayor in Portland made a difference," said Brennan, 58. "I am going to need everybody's help, everybody at City Hall, everybody in the community, all the people here, in order to fulfill that dream and fulfill that promise, and I hope in four years from now, we will look back and say, we have better jobs in Portland, we have a more robust economy, we have a better school system, and that we continue to maintain a qualify of life that no place else in the country" can match, he continued. Brennan, a Democrat, served more than a decade as a state representative and state senator, rising to
senate majority leader. He is currently a policy advocate at the Muskie School at University of Southern Maine. Under the new charter that voters approved in 2010, the mayor is elected to a four-year term and earns a salary of about $66,000. The current position is part time, has a one-year term, pays about $7,000 and is largely ceremonial. Under the existing system, the mayor is a member of the city council and is chosen by a vote of the nine councilors. The new charter grants the mayor power to veto the budget but relatively few additional powers. As with now, much of the day-to-day operation of the city falls to the city manager and other city staff. As expected, the mayor's race was determined after all but two candidates — Strimling and Brennan see BRENNAN page 12
Civic Center overhaul pivots from plans to action BY DAVID CARKHUFF
The Civic Center board will meet to discuss the voter-approved renovation on Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 8 a.m. at the Civic Center.
THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN
Next week, the Cumberland County Civic Center board will stop basking in a major election win and start planning a voter-approved $33 million renovation of the 34-year-old building. “We are meeting next week, the board of trustees, and we’re going to be starting the process of selecting an architect
Pratt
and a building team as well as appointing a building committee to serve as a liaison between the building team and the trustees,” said Neal Pratt, chairman of the Civic Center board.
The board will select an architectural firm, which will “play point” on the renovation, and the selection process will include finding a construction firm and a team that will manage construction as well as the hiring of subcontractors, Pratt explained. On Tuesday, county voters approved the $33 million renovation of the Civic Center, with 40,615 voting in favor of the measure and 29,583 voting against it, see CIVIC CENTER page 3