Address: 172 Allen Ave.

Occupation: Owner/manager of J.L. Hayes and Co.

Experience: City Council, 2004; Auburn Planning Board member 1977-1990, chairman 1988-1990; Lewiston Downtown Development and Management Corp., director 1980-1987, chairman 1985-1987; Chamber of Commerce member, 1975 to present

Education: Union College, New York; Navy Officer Candidate school, Newport R.I.; Navy Supply School, Athens, Ga.; University of Southern Maine

Personal: Married, two adult children

Why are you seeking another term as a city councilor?

“I’ve served two years, and I’ve found that two years is just an introduction to the issues of the city. It takes time to understand the complexities of one issue against another issue. I feel that it’s been a valuable lesson, but only a two-year lesson, and I look forward to at least a third year.”

What can you do to provide relief for Auburn property taxpayers?

“That’s why we have such an effort to expand the economic base. It’s important not only for the value of that economic development – in the way of commercial buildings, both retail as well as industrial.

“I think what we’ve seen for the past 15 years, since revaluation was last done in 1990, there has been quite a swing the other way – that over those years we would have actually benefited by putting more and more of the tax burden on to commercial activities. But because of the revaluation, the strong housing market that has been seen for the last five years, resulted in the scales being tipped the other way. So I think that now it’s very important to recognize again the need for continued commercial development.”

Please rate yourself. What could you have done to make things smoother for the city, the citizens or the City Council?

“I put myself somewhere in, I hope, the high C range, anyway. Certainly it is a time-consuming position as far as the learning, and I think that is the one area where I’d like to spend more time – exploring all the issues.

“Certainly the mayor’s budget committee did a good job. They were able to focus on particular parts of the budget and brought a lot of good information forward, which as councilors, we need that. We needed to dig even deeper, as those budget committee members did.”