Evan Cyr, 30

245 Broad St.

[email protected]

Occupation: High school teacher, Edward Little High School

Education: BA in Anthropology, University of Maine; MA, Secondary science education, University of Maine.

Political Experience: None.

Community organizations: Maine League of Young Voters, Poland Gun Club.

What is broken in your city? What problem do you perceive, and how will you, as an elected leader, fix it?

Recent events have shown that the faith in our local government is what’s broken right now. There’s discontent between the city manager and the City Council, there’s discontent  between citizens over what the  best solution is and part of that is that there is no clear sense of leadership.

As a city councilor, I would hope to bring a sense of leadership, a sense of civility to the government that would help citizens feel that they can be confident in the government, that they can ask questions and that they themselves can become involved in what happens.

Edward Little High School is in need of repairs, but it’s unlikely state financial aid for a replacement will be coming soon. Should the city pursue repairs on its own, bonding the money to do the work, or not?

There’s no doubt that Edward Little either needs to be repaired or replaced. I think the real issue comes down to funding and how we’re going to fund it. 

I think it needs to be part of our long-term goals. The state has said they’re not going to provide funding for at least 10 years. That means that between now and then we either have to focus on economic development that can provide extra monies for the city or we need to bond the money right now. I would say we need to focus on economic development. We need to look at how we as a city can generate the revenue through revitalizing our downtown, expanding along the river corridor as outlined in the comprehensive plan and how we can take advantage of resources like our railway system. We need to make sure we are providing income so that if we do choose to bond the money right now, we have the ability to pay that money off.

How do you rate the current city manager, and would you rehire him? What would you have the city manager do to best serve the city of Auburn?

I can say that I have not had to deal with Glenn, beyond being a citizen of Auburn. I have dealt with him privately as an individual. I can say that Glenn was always very nice to me and I liked him. I have neighbors that have worked for the city, and in talking to them, I got a different feel for who Glenn is. I think that although I’ve heard discussion from other people, all I can say is that Glenn has been helpful to me as a private citizen.

I think that Glenn’s personal management style has created some hoopla within the city government and amongst employees and I think when hiring a city manager, the council really needs to not only what this person will bring to the table but how will they be able to interact within the current system.

I think right now, Glenn is not working well within the system but that does not mean he can’t and I won’t say that I’m unwilling to rehire Glenn. I would be willing to review Glenn as a candidate for city manager in the same way that I would interview anybody else and I really hope that he is willing to come back and put in an application so that we can review if we’d like him to stay, or if someone else would be a better option.

Leroy Walker Sr., 62

41 Broad St.

[email protected]

Occupation: Retired, former Auburn Parks superintendent.

Education: GED

Political experience: None.

Community organizations: Founder and president, United New Auburn Association; President, Central Maine Dart League.

What is broken in your city? What problem do you perceive, and how will you, as an elected leader, fix it?

I think for one thing the City Council has fallen apart on us over the last three or four years. They don’t seem to have a focus of working with the manager or solving problems we have. I don’t think we’ve solved a thing in the city in the last two years, other than firing the city manager.

Hopefully the next council will be able to take care of new management and be able to work side by side with the people we bring in. I think this council has caused us a lot of problems, and they’re leaving us with a lot of problems.

Edward Little High School is in need of repairs, but it’s unlikely state financial aid for a replacement will be coming soon. Should the city pursue repairs on its own, bonding the money to do the work, or not?

There’s a great deal of work to be done before we can say yes to bonding the money. I think Edward Little needs to be repaired, but first we need research all options out there. We could get more people involved, meaning business people, and I think we could even reach out to Senator Snowe to figure out better ways to take care of the Edward Little problem we have.

I don’t like to see this city invest money into something that’s just going to rot away on us. I think we need to look out of the box and I think we need a brand new high school. we may need to pressure the state to get the money quicker and we may need to say, as the City of Auburn, that we will put up a certain amount of money — whether it’s $5 million or $10 million — and get other people to come out and work with us and support this new high school.  

How do you rate the current city manager, and would you rehire him? What would you have the city manager do to best serve the city of Auburn?

I believe it would be absolutely wrong for me to say that we would re-hire him back right now. I don’t know enough about why this council came together to vote, a five to one decision. I think it would do a disgrace to the council that’s leaving, whether I agree with what they’ve done or not.  We have to respect their decision. I would have to know a lot more facts to sit down and make a decision to hire Glenn Aho back as manager for the city. Of course, I would work side-by-side with the new council to make sure we all come to a decision to do this.

I would hope we could sit down and determine a long-term goal. This city has not had anything happen in the past four years. It’s been settled and idle, and when you idle too long, you tend to grow mold. And we’re almost there if we don’t get up and start doing some exciting things.