AUBURN — With about three weeks until nomination papers are due at the City Clerk’s office, Stanwood “Joe” Gray is the only challenger to Mayor Jason Levesque, who is seeking a second term.

For Gray, 55, the race is less about the spotlight and more about returning the balance of power to the City Council, he said.

“I think the mayors have taken too much power and become too controlling, and they need to allow the council to do the work, and support the council more,” Gray said Thursday.

He said the city’s current focus and handling of potential ordinance changes in the agriculture and resource protection zone is “badly placed,” and that elected officials need to shift priorities to developing the downtown, “where there is a greater return on investment.”

Gray co-owns Valley View Farm in Auburn with his wife, Kathy Shaw, and is a carpenter. He served on the City Council in 2011 when former councilor Eric Samson stepped down. Samson is now the Androscoggin County sheriff.

Gray attends nearly every City Council meeting, and when he doesn’t, he often watches online.

He said he didn’t agree with how Levesque pivoted the council away from the findings of a previous committee on agriculture, creating an ad hoc agriculture committee, “in a process that wasn’t very transparent.”

A Bates College land-use survey underway now has also highlighted political tensions over the future of the zone, which accounts for roughly 40 percent of Auburn.

While Levesque has argued that the results of the survey should not be reviewed by elected officials because of a “tainted” process, Auburn City Manager Peter Crichton said last week that the information could be used to “better inform” elected officials.

Gray agrees. As a landowner in the agricultural zone, he has taken the survey.

“Hopefully, the city manager and assistant manager will rethink their position and at least look at it to see if it has any value,” he said.

All Auburn candidates for the Nov. 5 election have until Aug. 22 to return nomination papers. Gray said he’s already collected the 100 signatures he needs, but he will continue to knock on doors to meet more people.

Initially, Brad Farrell was also listed as having taken out papers for mayor, but Farrell told the Sun Journal it was a mistake, and that he’s actually running for a City Council at-large seat.

Levesque kicked off his re-election campaign at Gritty McDuff’s Brew Pub on July 9, just a day after nomination papers became available.

He appeared on WGAN radio the same day to talk about his first term and his re-election effort. Asked what he’s accomplished, Levesque said he’s brought “local sanity back to Auburn.”

“We’ve kept taxes extremely low, well-below the level of inflation,” he said during the interview. “We’ve really looked at what we’re spending money on, how to invest money as a city to increase the quality of life but also provide some return on investment, providing some business practices, some best practices, if you would, to city government, and it’s paying off.”

Adam Lee, the former councilor and mayoral candidate who lost to Levesque in 2017 by 12 votes, has said he will not run this year.