PORTLAND, Maine — The City of Portland is taking one step closer to restructuring the power and responsibilities of its leadership.
In the end, however, Portland voters will have the final say.
After one year of work, the 12-member city charter commission has written a new structure for the mayor and the city manager.
Currently, voters elect eight members of the city council and then the mayor, who chairs the council. The nine then hire a city manager, who works with the mayor to create a budget that is then filed with the council to be approved.
Under the commission’s proposal, the mayor is removed from the council -- relinquishing their vote -- and is instead placed over the city manager. This power dynamic is the source of a major argument.
The commission’s chair, Michael Kebede, told NEWS CENTER Maine that the mayor is little more than a figurehead who runs city council meetings and can’t make an impact on problems facing the city.
Meanwhile, a group of 14 former mayors and current Mayor Kate Snyder oppose the move, saying it will give too much power to the mayor.
"This system that vests all this power and authority in an executive mayor invites cronyism," former Mayor Jill Duson argued during a Wednesday interview. She said she couldn't think of a problem the commission's proposal would solve.
"The charter commission process very much forgets that we have an elected city council and that policy and budget decisions and these things that folks want to vest in a single elected representative are currently made by a nine-member city council on which the mayor has a vote," Duson continued.
Kebede, on the other hand, called the current system "indefensible."
He said Portland faces real challenges like climate change, homelessness, and an influx of asylum seekers -- issues that mayoral candidates run on.
"When Portland votes for its next mayor, I believe the voters will believe that this mayor will have some kind of solutions to these problems," Kebede explained. "Well, our system gives that mayor power to implement those solutions."
If the proposal passes and the mayor is removed from Portland’s city council, that will leave an even number of eight voting members. Kebede said motions that end in a tied vote will fail.
The commission is scheduled to finish its work on the proposal by its July 6 meeting. The proposal will then be read by the city council and, finally, be printed on Portland ballots for election day on Nov. 8.