Vote or Quit Bitchin’ 2006
Local election coverage
Voters’ Guide: Portland City Council District 1
Panic at Disco Willy’s?
By Chris Busby
In City Council District 1 – the East End, Bayside, downtown and the islands – incumbent Will Gorham is being challenged by two first-time candidates, Kevin Donoghue and Kirk Goodhue.
Gorham, 57, grew up on Munjoy Hill and still lives there with his wife and son. A real estate broker by trade, Gorham is a former merchant marine and veteran of the Marine Corps Reserves, and has long been involved as a volunteer and board member with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Portland. In the late ’70s, Gorham co-owned and ran a bar and disco in the Old Port, a distinction that earned him the nickname Disco Willy from this publication.
Elected to the Council in 2003, Gorham has chaired the three-member Public Safety Committee, and currently serves as chairman of the Mayor’s Old Port Nightlife Oversight Committee.
If reelected, Gorham would be in line for the mayorship, but there’s been talk that he wishes to forgo that honor for two years in hopes of being appointed mayor in 2009, when the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Portland will celebrate its centennial anniversary.
Donoghue, 27, is a recent graduate of the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service. More-or-less unemployed at present – Donoghue said he’s pursuing a few “casual work” opportunities – his main occupation these days is City Council candidate. Even before he made his run official this past summer, Donoghue was a regular at city meetings, especially those related to planning and transportation issues.
Donoghue is single. He moved from the West End to an apartment on Munjoy Hill – a few doors down from Gorham – earlier this year, and has since gotten on the board of the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization. The same vote that put Donoghue on the MHNO board also ousted longtime member Gorham, generating whispered talk of a politically motivated “coup.” Donoghue chairs the Portland committee of the Green Independent Party.
Goodhue, 54, is also a real estate broker. He’s single and has a grown daughter. Though he currently lives on the East End, Goodhue has personal and business ties to Peaks Island: he owns property there; his business, Port Island Realty, is based there; and he’s well known in the island community for, among other things, wearing shorts when most every other sane person has packed them away for the winter.
Goodhue has served on the city’s Civil Service Commission, its Parks Commission, and the Eastern Prom Master Planning Committee. An MHNO member, Goodhue was also involved early on in the formation of the West End Neighborhood Association.
Donoghue is hoping Munjoy Hill’s shift from a neighborhood of working-class families to one of renters and hipsters will give him the support necessary to oust Gorham, who in several respects personifies the Munjoy Hill of old: proud, tough and hard-working, but more conservative than the neighborhood’s new residents. Donoghue has sought to cast Gorham as “the anti-fun Councilor” for his efforts to limit the number of bars in the Old Port. Gorham has defended his efforts to improve public safety in the district, and when pressed will own up to his disco days as further proof he’s not “anti-fun.”
Actually, Gorham and Donoghue have more in common that either is inclined to admit. Donoghue is a neighborhood activist who routinely speaks out against development projects he perceives to be too big, incompatible with the neighborhood, bad for traffic and parking, etc. Gorham rose to political prominence six years ago when, as MHNO president, he led opposition to a housing development on the Hill that he and other neighbors deemed too big, bad for parking and traffic, etc.
Goodhue has run a more low-profile race, most notable for his quirky slogan: “The Good Vote is for Goodhue.” He’s tended to stick to the issues, rather than wage a character-based campaign, though he was critical of Gorham’s recent move to secretly change towing policy on Munjoy Hill.
Though some have suspected the secret towing ban’s revelation is a campaign move – a local “October surprise” – neither Gorham nor anyone affiliated with his campaign tipped The Bollard to this story.
The following are the candidates’ responses to our Voters’ Guide questions, edited for clarity, focus and flair, as necessary.
Should taxes be increased for all property owners to pay for a property tax rebate program for homeowners/renters?
Donoghue: No.
Goodhue: No. The city’s program to do this “was a miserable failure.”
Gorham: No. Voted against creating a city tax rebate program funded by a general property tax increase because “it’s not a fair program.”
Would you support a proposal to build a hotel on the eastern waterfront?
Donoghue: No.
Goodhue: “I would not have supported [the zoning change allowing hotel development there] had I been on the Council.”
Gorham: “I would have to see the proposal first and how it’s laid out before I would say yes.”
Should bar owners be subject to a special tax to help cover police overtime costs?
Donoghue: No.
Goodhue: “I think there is justification for that… [but] it should be citywide,” not just in the Old Port or downtown.
Gorham: “I think the program we have in place right now is broken and I think we ought to get rid of it. [The Old Port Overlay system] is unfair to a lot of business people down there.” Would consider covering police overtime costs by increasing city liquor license fees or using general fund revenue.
Is Portland’s community policing program effective?
Donoghue: “It’s a gesture in the right direction, but [community policing] is not just having neighborhood police outposts… [It’s] encouraging a community-policing mindset in officers, making them more accessible to the public and more visible to the public – fewer automobile cops, more motorcycle and bicycle and beat cops.”
Goodhue: “Yes, I think it’s great and should be expanded.”
Gorham: The Munjoy Hill program is effective, “it works up here.”
Who is the community police officer assigned to your neighborhood?
Donoghue: “I do not know the name of any police officer in my neighborhood.”
Goodhue: “I can’t [name one], but that’s my own shortcoming, not theirs.”
Gorham: Rick Ray.
If consolidating elementary schools would save money but lead to some increase in class sizes, would you support consolidation?
Donoghue: “I don’t support school consolidation.”
Goodhue: Depends on the size of the increase and other factors, like transportation time.
Gorham: “I could not take the possibility of consolidating some schools off the table.”
Do you support a ban or restrictions on formula businesses?
Donoghue: “I think it’s something which needs study.”
Goodhue: No.
Gorham: No.
Do you support establishing “drug-free safe zones” in Portland?
Donoghue: “No. The intention is good, but at the end of the day, it just means if you commit a crime in the city, you face more [prison] time than if you commit a crime in the suburbs and rural areas…. It’s an equal protection [issue] in my mind, a bias against urban citizens.”
Goodhue: Yes.
Gorham: The Public Safety Committee has discussed the proposed ordinance, “and I think it would have to be drafted differently than the way it is right now, because to charge some kid with a felony for carrying a joint is really not the right direction to be heading in.”
What can be done to help the fishing industry in Portland?
Donoghue: “I recognize I am not the expert [on this issue]. I will seek out experts who are not part of the city administration, necessarily.”
Goodhue: “To be honest, I don’t know a lot about the fishing industry and what their needs are, but I think it’s important to work with the pier owners to enable them to offer berthing space at reasonable rates to the fishermen.”
Gorham: “Get the federal government to change the rules.” Also, “The city of Portland is going to ask the Governor and the state Legislature to allow [groundfishermen] to keep lobster bycatch [lobsters caught in fishing nets]. We would hope they would support it in order to help our own fishing fleet get over this hump, this financial burden.” And lobby Augusta to exempt fish harvesters from the tax on diesel fuel; make this a temporary exemption.
Should voters citywide get to vote on Peaks secession?
Donoghue: “I don’t think it would do any harm, because we don’t even know how the citizens of Portland feel about it…. We know the majority of Peaks Islanders do not consider Portland integral to their identity. It’d be interesting to see if it’s vice versa.”
Goodhue: Yes.
Gorham: “I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens at the request of the state before they take some action on [secession]. It wouldn’t be such a bad idea – put the facts out there, ‘This is what will happen: your taxes will go up.'”
Should the city revisit the idea of an elected mayor?
Donoghue: “Absolutely. We have something worse than no leadership – we have the illusion of leadership.” Favors a system of eight district councilors and one at-large representative who’d serve as City Council President for a three-year term, but with a vote equal to other councilors’.
Goodhue: “I’m not in favor of an elected mayor. I think a councilor’s responsibility is to hire a good, strong city manager, and collectively they can work with him to direct the course of policy for the city. With what I know of city politics, I would not be comfortable having a single councilman have that much control.”
Gorham: “How many times have the voters rejected that?” That said, added, “If there was a great desire for people to vote on it again, I wouldn’t have a problem putting it on a ballot.”
