The City Council chambers were packed full to speak on two pressing matters – the annual budget for Portland Public Schools and the Portland Museum of Art’s request to demolish the building at 142 Free Street, formerly the Children’s Museum. The Mayor also undertook a time-saving procedural reform to business licenses, representatives of the restaurant industry registered complaints about downtown parking limits, and procedural confusion abounds.
The Portland Townsman Posts
Ashley Keenan is a member of the Historic Preservation Board. The following article does not in any way represent the views of the board as…
3 CommentsIn a very brief and mostly uncontroversial meeting, the City Council met on Monday, April 22nd to knock out a variety of minor items. Though this meeting was efficient, (if not for public comments it might not have even lasted half an hour,) the council also teed up a very busy night for its next session in May.
Leave a CommentWhile much of Maine was congregating in the interior of the state to witness the rare total solar eclipse, Portland’s City Council met on Monday April 8th to finalize the list of federal grant recipients among Portland’s many nonprofits, refer the City Manager’s draft budget to committee, speculate as to who’s behind the “Lions Club of Peaks Island,” and dispose of a wide variety of minor obligations.
2 CommentsOn Monday, March 18th , the City Council discussed and disbursed tens of millions of dollars’ worth of grants, funds, subsidies, improvements, and more. These plans, all separate from the general budget process, included CDBG funds for community services, FAA grants for the Portland Jetport, Capital Improvement Plan authorizations for infrastructure and maintenance, and a new application process for affordable housing programs. Not every grant applicant was a winner, however, and many more – including one Councilor – were frustrated with the opacity of city spending.
1 CommentAn unusually brief City Council meeting – just over half an hour – took place on Monday, March 6th. A number of straightforward items, (described by one commenter as “thin gruel,”) were efficiently dispatched, including two separate windfalls for the maintenance and improvement of public cemeteries in Portland. The night passed almost without any conflict to speak of, until the inconvenient timing of a solar eclipse threatened to ensnarl the city’s budget process.
2 CommentsOn February 26th, 2024, the City Council dispatched with several large-ticket items, including a $1.2mm loan to save an affordable housing project and a major…
3 CommentsIn a busy but efficiently-disposed agenda, the City Council on February 5th approved a slew of parks projects and appointed a new member to the Public Art Committee. A financial report from Clean Elections shed new light on how public funds were being spent, the city’s HSO defends itself against attacks from the Press Herald, and the limited state of emergency at the Homeless Services Center was extended until June. The city accepted money from the state to continue supporting asylum claimants, arranged for the replacement of a police robot, and the controversial H.O.P.E. program smashed through dissent and into law. All this and more in this edition of City Council Review.
2 CommentsA last-minute emergency plan to move funds earmarked for affordable housing construction towards housing subsidies for those still in the encampments sparks controversy ahead of the Feb. 5 City Council Meeting. How ought the President’s windfall funds be spent? Should the city subsidize demand, or supply? Should the city hire its own staff, or work through nonprofits? Read about H.O.P.E., the optimistically-named endeavor at the center of all these questions.
2 CommentsWith only six councilors in chambers on Wednesday, a hoped-for emergency measure to adopt Morningstar Road lacked sufficient votes for immediate adoption, leaving residents of the street with ten chilly days without services. A report from the Rent Board sheds light on as many as 471 non-compliant rental units, and concern for rats in Harborview Park brings out naturalists and pet enthusiasts alike.
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