LEWISTON – The Twin Cities image – gilded by several years of progress – will not likely be tarnished by criminal accusations against Lewiston Mayor Lionel Guay, say local government and business leaders.
The cities are simply too strong.
“The community is larger than the fate of one man,” said Paul Badeau, marketing director of the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council. “The big story on Lewiston-Auburn has been all of the progress taking place.”
On Nov. 2, Guay and his brother, Auburn Mayor Normand Guay, picked up the Maine State Chamber of Commerce’s President’s Award for the cities’ success.
The same day, word of the misdemeanor complaints against the Lewiston mayor surfaced. Lionel Guay was charged with three counts of unlawful sexual touching and four counts of assault.
Guay, 64, said he is innocent.
A decade ago, the accusations might have stained the city’s reputation, said Phil Nadeau, Lewiston’s assistant city administrator. No more.
“I don’t think we were as good at what we do back then,” Nadeau said.
In the past 10 years, both Lewiston and Auburn have worked to polish the cities’ reputation. Along with new jobs and new businesses, the cities and the growth council have funded the “It’s Happening Here” campaign, also aimed at buffing the city’s image.
One measure of the work may be how the cities have weathered past controversies, Nadeau said, such as the pressure former Lewiston Mayor Larry Raymond faced after his letter to the Somali community in 2001 or Normand Guay’s drunken-driving arrest in 2003.
The issues drew newspaper and TV reports, and in the case of Mayor Raymond, national press coverage and numerous calls for his impeachment.
“You have to be strong enough as a city to work through these moments,” Nadeau said.
The image may also be spared because of the willingness of people to wait and see what happens when such accusations are made, Lewiston City Administrator James Bennett said.
After all, charges were never filed against Normand Guay, the Auburn mayor.
“As someone who has faced controversy, they’re all allegations until they’re proven in court,” Normand Guay said.
Lionel Guay has vowed to serve in office as long as voters and the courts allow.
For both Guay and his accuser, the controversy is a tragedy, said Chip Morrison, director of the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce. For them, the effects may last a long time.
“In my life, the only person who is above this is Bill Clinton,” he said.
However, the community will be fine, said Morrison, a former Auburn city manager.
Like Nadeau, he believes the community has grown enough in the past 10 years to prevent a controversy from leaving a stain.
“We aren’t what we used to be,” he said.
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