LEWISTON – Voters on Tuesday will choose from among four candidates trying to claim the mayor’s chair for the next nine months.

The special election will take place at the Multi-Purpose Center. Candidates are School Committee member Leah Poulin, City Councilor Normand Rousseau, former police Chief Laurent Gilbert and perennial candidate Charles Soule.

The new mayor will be sworn in Wednesday if there is a clear winner. If not, the top two vote-getters will square off in a March 27 runoff election.

The winner will complete Lionel Guay’s term, which expires at the end of 2007. Guay resigned in November midway through his second term, citing stress as the leading reason for his resignation.

Tuesday’s ballot also includes a referendum on a bond issue to build a new Pettingill School.

COMING UP in Saturday’s Sun Journal: Volunteers who want to see a new Pettingill School approved have found that winter and snow make planting campaign signs more challenging.

Profiles

Laurent F. Gilbert
OCCUPATION: Associate director of the Maine Community Policing Institute at the University of Maine at Augusta

EDUCATION: Associate degree in criminal justice and bachelor’s degree in administration of justice from UMA

COMMUNITY SERVICE: Lewiston Downtown Advisory Board; the Mayors Lewiston/Auburn Joint Services Commission; president of the Board of Directors of the Franco-American Heritage Center

PERSONAL: Married, father of three

>>Q: What can you, as mayor, do to trim property taxes for Lewiston?

>>A: I think first of all, one has to realize that there are certain limits that a mayor has. But certainly, you can guide and provide leadership for the council and for the administration as well.

Something I am one of the strongest proponents of is joint services. That my not cut taxes, but it can certainly stem their growth. If you can create efficiencies, you can at least slow taxes down.

Also, I want to work closely with legislative delegates in Augusta, to bring about constitutional changes to allow for more ways of reducing taxes.

>>Q: Major tax reform could take a couple of years. What can you do to keep property tax bills from increasing dramatically this year?

>>A: I think there was a missed opportunity in this past year to move the joint services process forward, and you can’t do that. You can’t allow time to pass without moving forward.

One of the reasons I’m running is so that I can move that process forward from the inside. I served on the original L-A Together Commission 12 years ago and that report was put on a shelf to gather dust. I was asked to serve on this joint services group two years ago.

Q. If there are savings to be found in the city budget, where would you recommend cuts?

A. First of all, I’d have to look at the current budget. I have not had the benefit of being in office, so certainly I’d want to look at the current budget, the proposed budget and I think I can decipher critical needs, needs and wishes.

Q. Has the city been well-managed for the past couple of years, and what changes would you make?

A. I think the administration needs to listen to the public more. That means communicating with them. Certainly, I have gone door to door in this campaign. When I am mayor, I intend to keep doing that. As elected officials, we are delegates of the people. It’s a government of the people, and the only way to do it is to communicate with them honestly and forthrightly.

Q. It costs thousands of dollars each year to maintain Bates Mill No. 5. Should the city leave it alone, push for redevelopment or knock it down?

A. I would push for development, but not just locally. I think that’s what has occurred, the push has always been within our own borders.

I think we need to look outside to get developers who might have an interest in something like that. That’s what needs to happen, and it needs to happen quick. It costs $400,000 to $450,000 to maintain that and we can’t do it on an ongoing basis – just like we can’t do it at the Colisee.

Leah M.B. Poulin
OCCUPATION: Stay-at-home mom

EDUCATION: Pre-law at University of Phoenix

COMMUNITY SERVICE: Lewiston School Committee at-large for four years

PERSONAL: Married, two children.

>>Q: What can you as mayor do to trim property taxes for Lewiston?

>>A: Communication, education and collaboration are big things. By using those and communicating with citizens we can probably reduce or keep property taxes as they are.

>>Q: Major tax reform could take a couple of years. What can you do to keep property tax bills from increasing dramatically this year?

Keep the costs and the spending down. By working with the City Council and the citizens. I do think we need to be looking at the programming we have, re-evaluating what we have, what we need and what we don’t need. Also, finding new revenue would be a good idea.

>>Q: If there’s savings to be found in the city budget, where would you recommend cuts?

>>A: Maybe in capital improvements we could re-evaluate what we spending. We could spend less now and work on it in smaller bites.

We are spending a lot on the Colisee, and the Bates Mill. Maybe we could find a way to make money from them instead.

Has the city been well managed for the past couple of years, and what changes would you make?

There seems to be a lot of chaos at City Council meetings. I don’t want to say that it hasn’t been well managed, but I can see room for improvement with better collaboration. Some say, there is a form of manipulation going on. Some watch the meetings and they laugh at the chaos and the bickering. It seems that Jim Bennett has recently tried to not be the head man. But that’s hard to do with so much bickering among councilors.

It costs thousands of dollars each year to maintain Bates Mill No. 5. Should the city leave it alone, push for redevelopment or knock it down. Why?

My thoughts are to find a way to make the building work, and make it earn revenue. There has been talk of a convention center thrown around, and I think that’s a good idea. If we can find a way to bring revenue in and not spend money on these buildings, that would be the ultimate. But if we need to sell it, that must be an option. But we can’t afford to keep spending on a building we are not using on anything.

Normand Rousseau

OCCUPATION: Owner, Twin City Liquidators and Compass Coin and Jewelry

EDUCATION: Gorham State Teachers College

COMMUNITY SERVICE: Six years as Ward 7 city councilor; Downtown Development Management Corp.; Mayor’s Downtown Advisory Board

PERSONAL: Married, four children, eight grandchildren

>>Q: What can you, as mayor, do to trim property taxes for Lewiston?

>>A: I’ve been on the council for six years, and we’ve trimmed taxes for the last five years. It’s a challenge each and every year because many of the things they do at the state and federal level affect our revenues or expenditures.

Citizens have asked for reform. Things like Palesky and TABOR have come forward. There were problems with them, and that’s why I didn’t support them. But I totally support property tax reform. We will have to work shoulder-to-shoulder with our local citizens to come up with some creative ways and measures, and to discuss with legislators to find ways to provide relief.

>>Q: Major tax reform could take a couple of years. What can you do to keep property tax bills from increasing dramatically this year?

>>A: We can implement it like they did in Auburn – a little bit at a time. But these are challenges we’re going to (face) going forward. We need an overhaul in property tax. Especially in a municipality, property taxes are the only way we have to raise money. That’s why we came up with the storm water fee in the first place.

Q. If there are savings to be found in the city budget, where would you recommend cuts?

A. I would recommend cuts through attrition. Hopefully, we can cross-train existing people to do other kinds of jobs.

We already cut 28 employees out of our system. We already trimmed down over the last few years and now we’re being faced with even greater challenges. At some point, you end up affecting the services you are delivering.

Q. Has the city been well-managed for the past couple of years, and what changes would you make?

A. If you think back five years ago, when I first came into office, there was a lot of dissension. There was no confidence in the public sector from the private sector. We’ve been able to change all that, and we’re working as a team. Five years ago, the only thing going on was the (Bates) Mill. We had four new councilors, a new mayor and no city administrator. Look at where the community is today and where we’ve brought it. This has all happened because of the teamwork, people able to work together and make things happen.

Q. It costs thousands of dollars each year to maintain Bates Mill No. 5. Should the city leave it alone, push for redevelopment or knock it down?

A. We have to commit to doing one thing, either make it a civic center or tear it down or find a way to generate enough money to pay for itself. But right now, it makes no sense to leave it the way it is.

Charles A. Soule

OCCUPATION: Receiving Veterans Administration benefits

EDUCATION: Naval Administration School, San Diego Calif.; Edward Little High School, class president, Student Senate president; recipient of DAR Good Citizenship award

COMMUNITY SERVICE: Has run for mayor six times

>>Q: What can you, as mayor, do to trim property taxes for Lewiston?

>>A: The first thing I’d do is try and combine the two cities. We have a good opportunity to do that now because the Auburn school superintendent is leaving.

It’s like the governor’s plan, and we need Lewiston-Auburn to adhere to the philosophy “It’s Happening Here” and combine the Lewiston and Auburn school superintendents in one job, under (Lewiston Superintendent) Leon Levesque. That would show the rest of the state that we really mean business.

>>Q: Major tax reform could take a couple of years. What can you do to keep property tax bills from increasing dramatically this year?

>>A: I’m going to try to wean things like the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council, which is receiving $113,000 each year from both cities. I believe it’s time for these organizations to be weaned off of the cities and stand on their own legs.

It’s the same thing with the airport. They were talking about doing a 20-year plan, and taxpayers have been asking for decreased taxes – not an additional burden.

If there are savings to be found in the city budget, where would you recommend cuts?

The most important one is the joint services, and looking at how we can get on the ball with working together and combining positions. Like they did with the dog catcher, which saved each city about $10,000. I think Lewiston and Auburn need to start working like they are brothers and sisters.

Has the city been well-managed for the past couple of years, and what changes would you make?

My pet peeve has been the Bates Mill exit strategy, which I was against. Then, take the Colisee. As far as I’m concerned, they swindled (former owner Roger Theriault) and put a $6 million face on it.

So, yeah, I think the city is mismanaged. I think Mr. Bennett is building his resume on the taxpayers of Lewiston.

It costs thousands of dollars each year to maintain Bates Mill No. 5. Should the city leave it alone, push for redevelopment or knock it down?

Personally, I don’t really believe it costs that much. I think they are hiding the costs of heating the rest of the mill in there to help Platz Associates. I think there is no way that mill costs that much to maintain.

What I say is put it in mothballs. Mr. Bennett’s proposal to tear it down and the Libbey Mill too, is ludicrous. I think we need to be a little more conservative in how we spend taxpayers’ money.