Wednesday, March 30, 2011

http://new.bangordailynews.com/2011/03/29/politics/mural%E2%80%99s-planned-move-to-portland-city-hall-all-but-disintegrates/?ref=latest

As criticism of removal mounts, where will the mural go?

PORTLAND, Maine — The president of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts sent a scathing letter Tuesday to Maine Gov. Paul LePage for removing a labor-themed mural from the Department of Labor headquarters as the status of the disputed artwork remains in limbo and its location remains a secret.

The 36-foot mural was taken down over the weekend after LePage said it was too biased in favor of organized labor and wasn’t in line with his pro-business agenda. The mural was installed in 2008 and depicts Maine’s long labor history with images of millworkers, labor strikes and child laborers among its scenes.

In a letter faxed to LePage’s office, Mount Holyoke College President Lynn Pasquarella said she has “grave concerns” about the decision to remove the mural, which includes a depiction of 1902 Mount Holyoke graduate and former U.S. Labor Secretary Frances Perkins. The U.S Department of Labor in Washington is housed in the Frances Perkins Building, she said.

“I was particularly surprised to read that you were influenced by an anonymous fax comparing the 11-panel mural to North Korean political propaganda, because the act of removing images commemorating Maine’s history itself conjures thoughts of rewriting history prevalent in totalitarian regimes,” she wrote.

LePage was in Florida on Tuesday and unavailable for comment, spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett said.

Labor advocates, artists and others have protested the removal of the mural, calling it an insult to Maine’s workers. It’s now in storage, but administration officials won’t say where.
LePage said the mural could be put on display at some other place, but so far nobody has committed to taking it.

The board of directors of the Museum L-A in Lewiston met Tuesday and reiterated its position that the mural should remain at the Department of Labor. The board also said it would be willing to accept the mural on loan, but put off making a final decision until it receives more information from the Department of Labor, said Executive Director Rachel Desgrosseilliers.

The board wants answers to questions such as who would insure the mural, how would it be transported and how long an exhibit would last, Desgrosseilliers said. There’s also a bit of discomfort with all the controversy surrounding the mural, she said.

“I’m a little worried that the artwork itself and the message of the art is going to get lost in the shuffle,” she said. “It’s a major part of our history in Maine, labor history, and it’s very important to keep the memory of those stories going, both good and bad. You can learn from both.”
A Portland city councilor who had offered City Hall as a possible temporary site for the piece has now changed his mind.

“I think it’s pretty clear people want it to be rehung at the Department of Labor,” said David Marshall, who is an artist and art gallery owner.

Critics are also questioning whether the removal was legal under state law and if it breached the contract between the Department of Labor and artist Judy Taylor, who lives in Tremont and spent a year creating the piece. Officials said it was funded through a $60,000 award using mostly federal money.

Portland attorney Jon Beal said he has been meeting with artists and labor advocates and plans to file a lawsuit this week challenging the mural’s removal.

Beal said he has sent emails to the governor’s office and the Maine State Museum stating his objections. He’s also asked where the mural is now located, who removed it and how much it cost to take it down, but he hasn’t heard back.

“It’s a little disheartening,” he said.

 

Portland Daily Sun

http://portlanddailysun.me/news/story/marshall-announce-mayoral-run

Marshall to announce mayoral run

By David Carkhuff

Mar 25, 2011 12:00 am

In a press event scheduled for Monday, City Councilor David Marshall is expecting to formally announce his candidacy for mayor of Portland.

"I'm going to explain my vision for the city and just talk about some of the accomplishments I've had on City Council," Marshall said Thursday in an interview. The announcement is scheduled at a press conference 9 a.m. Monday at City Hall.

A registered Green Independent, Marshall is the first sitting councilor to announce a run for the mayor's office.

The mayor's position, newly created by public vote, is a nonpartisan office and has attracted a diverse range of candidates. Marshall is part of a field of candidates that include Republican Erick Bennett, who announced last Monday he's running for mayor.

Other potential candidates who have picked up candidate registration forms for the mayor's race include Zouhair Bouzrara, Charles Bragdon, Jed Rathband and Christopher Vail. Rathband announced his run in recent months.

Marshall said he has shown he can get things done as an elected official.

In 2006, Marshall first won election to the City Council and won re-election in 2009, "with a platform based on the growing the creative economy, sustainability and neighborhood empowerment for the next generation of economic growth," Marshall reported in a press release.

"I'm dedicated to the city, I've been a homeowner here for over 10 years, I have a business on Congress Street downtown and I'm fully committed to seeing Portland recover from the economy and see it become competitive nationally and internationally," he said.

Asked how he would interact with new Republican Gov. Paul LePage, Marshall said he doesn't support the governor's policies, but that "as an independent person who does not have ties to the major parties," he would be able to work with either party.

In his release, Marshall ticked off a list of accomplishments, including: initiating the successful change to reinstate elections for the mayor; originating the Creative Economy Tax Increment Financing District, which received the Innovations in American Government Bright Idea Award from Harvard University; chairing the Skatepark Committee to raise funds, design and construct the Portland Skatepark; stewarding the Energy Service Contract to create green jobs and save $1.5 million in energy each year by investing $9.4 million into 45 municipal buildings; leading the defeat of a proposed moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries and authoring the zoning to permit dispensaries; advocating against locating the JFK Aircraft Carrier as a floating musuem next to the Eastern Waterfront; negotiating the relocation of West End Community Policing to the Reiche Community Center; creating Green Building Codes for municipal buildings and tax assisted developments; coordinating opposition to block an earmark that would have funded the widening of I-295 through the Portland peninsula; organizing a statewide effort to fund the Amtrak Downeaster Train and extend it to Brunswick; empowering the St. John Valley Neighborhood to plan improvements, form an association and secure funds for streetscape investments; securing investments in the Reiche Community Center; and co-chairing the Creative Economy Steering Committee, which resulted in the formation of Creative Portland, a quasi-governmental nonprofit dedicated to the creative economy.

Candidate registration forms allow hopefuls for office to record their campaign donations, in compliance with the Campaign Reports and Finances Law, according to Kathy Jones, acting city clerk.
Nomination papers are not available until July 1. When the nomination documents become available, at least 300 signatures will be needed for a candidate to successfully file for office, Jones explained. The filing period is from Aug. 15 to Aug. 29, she said.

PORTLAND DAILY SUN

http://portlanddailysun.me/news/story/new-voting-system-may-require-old-counting-system

New voting system may require old counting system

By Matt Dodge

Mar 16, 2011 12:00 am

In November, Portland citizens voted to create the position of a popularly elected mayor for the first time in 88 years using a system of rank choice voting (RCV) that advocates say ensures a winner who reflects the will of the majority of the electorate. .

But the new election system, which asks voters to pick their first, second, and third choices, may force the city to use an old vote-counting practice – counting the votes by hand.

Portland’s vote tabulating machines cannot process ballots based on RCV without a major upgrade, forcing the city to either rent newer equipment or count next November’s mayoral ballots by hand.
With Linda Cohen stepping down from the job of city clerk in January, the decision will have to wait until a replacement is found as the clerk handles all election matters within the city.

“We’re in a holding pattern,” said Nicole Clegg, city spokesperson.

The clerk's office has explored a few options, but Clegg said the city will wait until a new clerk is hired to make a final decision. “There are a variety of different ways you can do this that run the gamut from $80,000 to rent ballot boxes, software, memory cards and ballots to a few thousand [dollars] for a hand count,” she said.

Currently the cost for a city-wide election is $60,000, including staff at the polling places, according to Clegg.

“We’ve contacted three different companies that offer three different approaches, two of which would involve using existing ballot boxes,” said Clegg. One company would tally votes with Portland’s existing machines and use scanners and software to read the ranked choices if there is no clear winner, at a cost of $20,000.

The city could also opt to hand-count ballots, a process which would yield results one to two days after the election.

But the vote-tallying process doesn't have to be as expensive as Clegg suggests, said John Silvestro, president of Massachusetts-based election services company LHS Associates. Depending on the number of candidates vying for the job of Portland mayor, the company could either upgrade the city’s existing equipment or rent out a set of machines for election day.

“It’s all based on the size, layout and complexity of the ballot. Machines can be upgraded for a small ballot with only a few candidates. If there are only three choices there is a chance we could upgrade the [machine’s] firmware, but if there are 10 choices, it can’t be done,” said Silvestro, citing the a lack of memory space on the city’s existing machines.

In meetings last June, Charter Commission member Nathan Smith said the machines “could be programmed to handle [ranked choice voting],” according to minutes on the city’s website, estimating that the cost of reprogramming would be $30,000.

But seeing as November’s mayoral election will be the first opportunity for a non-city councilor to hold the position in 88 years, Silvestro said a simple upgrade might not suffice.

“I can’t give an estimate until I meet with somebody in Portland, but if the information the [interim clerk] provided is correct, it could be as low as $10,000 plus cost of ballots,” said Silvestro. The cost is largely determined by the number of candidates in the race and the number and populations of the city’s voting precincts.

“If the information was incorrect, it could go as high as $30,000 plus the ballot, but I would say it would never be higher than $50,000,” said Silvestro. “The expensive part comes in that you need to print whole different set of ballots to use separate machines [and] those can run 20 to 25 cents a piece.
Some elected officials said they expect a crowded field of candidates come November, and doubt any one candidate will earn the 50 percent of the vote necessary to prevent the race from being decided on second and third place choices.

“I think it would be surprising if someone took 50 percent plus one vote in the first round, I think it’s likely we would have to go to a second of third round before we’re able to find someone with a clear majority,” said Dave Marshall, a Portland city councilor.

“I wouldn't be surprised if we have 10 to12 [candidates] on the ballot,” said Ben Chipman, District 119 state representative and a member of the Charter Commission which pushed the elected mayor/RCV voting measure.

For Portland’s first go-around with RCV, Chipman said he favors a traditional hand count of the votes — a system he said would not only save the city money, but add a air of transparency to what, for some, in an unnervingly newfangled system of voting.

“I’ve encouraged the clerk's office to do a hand count because I think it’s really important we don't have anyone suspicious about how votes are counted since it’s our first time doing it,” said Chipman.
“RCV is not an easy thing to explain or understand, so I think it’s absolutely critical that we have the first RCV that's being done anywhere in Maine be counted by hand and I think it’s the probably easiest way out of issue of costs,” he said. “The last thing we want is to have a cloud of suspicion cast over the results.”

Portland Green Party chair and former Charter Commission member Anna Trevorrow also said she supported the idea of a hand count in November to acclimate voters to the new system.

“It’s old fashioned, but it’s tried and true,” said Trevorrow, who extols the educational benefits of the hand count system. “When you go through the process, that's when you start to understand how the system works. It would get people familiar with system and help them to understand how we arrive at the outcome,” she said.

PRESS HERALD

Graffiti plan calls for cleanup by property owners
Officials say it might be a challenge to pass the ordinance, which calls for $250 to $500 fines.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/graffiti-plan-calls-for-cleanup-by-property-owners_2011-03-09.html

By Dennis Hoey dhoey@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

PORTLAND — City officials are considering an anti-graffiti ordinance that's aimed at making Portland a more inviting place to live and do business.

The ordinance would require property owners who are "tagged" by graffiti vandals to remove the graffiti within 10 days after being notified by the city. Any property owner who does not could be fined $250, and $500 for subsequent violations.

Proponents say studies have shown that the faster graffiti is removed, the less likely vandals are to return.

Members of the City Council's Public Safety Committee responded favorably to the proposal Tuesday night, but acknowledged that passing it could be a challenge.

"I do feel we need to do something," said Councilor David Marshall. "But I recognize this is going to be a contentious issue."

The ordinance was proposed by the city's Community Police Advisory Board, a group made up of residents, business owners, the religious community and educators.

It was developed in conjunction with Trish McAllister, the city's neighborhood prosecutor.

"Graffiti is a visual symbol of disorder and lawlessness," McAllister wrote in a memo that was presented to the committee. "It contributes to a downward spiral of blight and decay, decreasing property values, lessening business viability, and adversely affecting tax revenues."

McAllister said the proposed ordinance is not intended to "re-victimize" property owners, but to hold negligent property owners responsible when they ignore the problem.

The proposal says the anti-graffiti law would not be enforced from Jan. 1 to April 30 because of weather considerations.

The sale of graffiti tools to anyone younger than 18 would be illegal, and parents of minors caught committing graffiti vandalism could be held responsible for removal costs.

Committee members said the ordinance needs further tuning before it can be presented to the council for consideration. They tabled the proposal until their meeting April 12.

Also Tuesday night, the Public Safety Committee considered a request from the Police Department to have the social service agency Preble Street enforce a code of conduct for its clients, saying it would make that neighborhood safer.

Police Cmdr. Vern Malloch told committee members that Preble Street "has inadvertently and unintentionally created a dangerous environment" by promoting a low-barrier policy -- which allows Preble Street to serve the destitute and homeless without requiring clients to abide by a code of conduct.

Police are seeking the City Council's support to have the low-barrier policy changed.

"Social workers do not share information with officers and frequently will not identify wanted persons, creating a sanctuary atmosphere," Malloch said in a memo to the committee. "The establishment of a code of conduct coupled with a commitment to share information with police is what is needed."

Preble Street's associate director, John Bradley, said social workers are bound by confidentiality laws. He said Preble Street welcomes a police presence and would be willing to meet with police to find common ground.

"If this were a bar, we'd have to close it down," Marshall said, referring to the 438 calls for service at Preble Street in 2010. "But it's not. It's a homeless shelter. Obviously, we have some work to do here."

Committee members told the Police Department to meet with Preble Street and work out a more effective system for rooting out behavior that could lead to drug trafficking, intimidation or violence. Malloch agreed to return April 12 with a progress report.

In another matter, the Public Safety Committee recommended that the City Council approve an ordinance that would make it easier to prosecute the owners of "disorderly houses."

City officials say the current law is ineffective.

Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at: dhoey@pressherald.com