Seven residents are running for three seats on the Cumberland Town Council: Mark Franco, Tanner Storey and Denise Thorsson are running for councilor-at-large; Geoffrey Michalak and Helene DiBartolomeo are running for the west seat; and Andrew Magoun and George Turner are running to represent the Foreside.
Each term is three-years and all voters in Cumberland pick their preferred candidate for each of the three seats. As with the race for seats on the SAD 51 School Board, there are no incumbents running – though one candidate, George Turner, previously served on the Town Council for over a decade.
At a candidate forum earlier this month, all seven spoke about managing the property tax burden, their top priorities if elected and their thoughts on developing more housing.
Franco
Franco
Mark Franco is an attorney who grew up in Portland. He moved to Cumberland in 2017.
His top priorities are ensuring that the opinions of the general public are heard by the council and that the council follows the town’s Comprehensive Plan. Cumberland will start the process of updating its comp plan, which will guide the town’s future growth and development, later this year. The update process is one of the reasons he chose to run, he said.
When asked about effective ways to manage the municipal budget and the property tax levy, Franco said that the town needs to be proactive about educating the public about the property re-evaluation process that will take place next year, collaborate more effectively with the school board on the budget process; increase the commercial tax base; and balance services and expenses.
“But let’s just face the fact. There’s always going to be property taxes and they’re going to be increasing, the issue is going to be the rate of increase and to try to keep that rate at an affordable level for the citizens,” he said.
Developing options for affordable housing should be one of the top priorities of the newly configured Town Council, he said.
“They’re making it work in other municipalities, and there’s no reason why we can’t either.”
Storey
Storey
Tanner Storey is originally from Cumberland and is a software engineer.
“I have a vested interest in seeing the town move into the future in a thoughtful, fiscally responsible manner: Meaning that I do not want to sacrifice the unique charm that we all know and love (and ensure that taxes are not a) barrier to entry for new residents, or the reason existing residents are leaving,” he said at the forum.
Storey also said he is keen to make information accessible to voters.
On budget and taxes, Storey said there is no “secret sauce” and that the council must evaluate budget items and decide what the citizens are going to get out of those items. He said he would try to find areas where costs can be reduced.
On housing, he said that any growth should be “managed in terms of the strain it will put on existing resources.”
For affordable housing, “I think all we can do is designate areas that we intend to be affordable housing and send it to the voters. If they don’t see the value in it being there, I think we have to listen to that,” he said.
In March, Cumberland voters rejected a proposal to build a $40 million, 107-unit affordable apartment complex.
Thorsson
Thorsson
Denise Thorsson is a systems engineer and was previously a Chinese language analyst with the U.S. Air Force. She moved to Cumberland in 2022.
Managing growth “responsibly” and fostering open communication with residents would be her top priorities if elected.
She’s in favor of “smart” growth, which she said entails clustering growth in areas where there are services and preserving more rural parts of the town. She is also in favor of expanding “housing variety” and “opening our view of what housing can look like.” Specifically, that could mean promoting accessory dwelling units, manufactured homes and even home sharing, she said.
She also talked about designating areas for growth and reviewing existing ordinances to “see if we can get out of our own way to allow residents to create their own housing in their own existing neighborhoods.”
She called for deed and resale restrictions on affordable housing developments to keep them affordable.
When it comes to managing the budget and property taxes, Thorsson is looking for the town to develop its commercial tax base. She also wants Cumberland to actively pursue grants, undertake fundraising, and leverage tax increment financing to fund projects. She also called for greater collaboration with the school during budget season.
DiBartolomeo
DiBartolomeo
Helene DiBartolomeo is a certified public accountant and was previously the finance director for the town of Cumberland. She moved to Cumberland in 2019.
She said she understands prudent financial policy and wants to prioritize retaining and attracting “top talent” for Cumberland’s workforce.
Her top two priorities are working with other municipalities to see where they can collaborate on shared services and creating better collaboration between the town, the Cumberland-North Yarmouth school district and the town of North Yarmouth.
“I can tell you first hand that the town’s budget is very tight,” she said. She appeared to advocate for more scrutiny around the SAD 51 budget, which makes up a large portion of the tax rate.
When it comes to housing, DiBartolomeo talked about taking things a “little bit slower.” She pointed to some of the reservations that the voters had around the affordable housing plan that was rejected in the spring as a reason that town should have a more “thoughtful process.”
Michalak
Michalak
Geoffrey Michalak was born and raised in Cumberland and is a product sales manager.
“You cannot stop change, every day our world is changing. However, the direction of change I believe can be modified so that the character that this town was built on remains in place for future generations to enjoy,” he said.
He wants to promote communication and give greater “visibility” into town matters, he said, and he also called for greater collaboration with nearby towns, particularly on shared services.
When it comes to the budget, Michalak called for not putting an increased burden on residents and articulated a general position of fiscal constraint.
On housing, he said that his first question is going to be: “how is it going to affect you folks?” He said he wants to build new housing with an eye towards whether existing infrastructure and services can support the new growth.
Magoun
Magoun
Andrew Magoun works in residential real estate and previously worked for nearly a decade with the U.S. Department of Defense. He moved to Cumberland in 2012.
“Growing smartly” is among his top priorities, he said at the forum.
“How do we have places where we can increase in density and limit the impact on the open space so we can maintain that?” He also talked about the importance of growing the commercial tax base.
He hopes the town will avoid being “pennywise and pound foolish” when looking at the budget. He wants to make “decisions today that will have the greatest impact for the good over the long-term future of the town,” he said. He also would like to see investment in energy efficiency in order to lower electricity costs. Like others, he talked about collaborating with other municipalities on shared services.
When it comes to housing, “the way to bring prices down is to increase supply. And we need to make sure that we’re doing that the right way and in the right areas,” he said. He talked about developing better transportation – like building a train station in Cumberland – in order to serve future growth.
Turner
Turner
George Turner attended Greely High School and works in real estate, according to his LinkedIn page. He moved back to Maine in 1977 after spending time in other parts of the country. He served 16 years on the Town Council from 2005 to 2021.
“My reason for running is basically historical identity … As far as Town Council is concerned, we need a balance between new, fresh, young blood and older, more experienced people that know the town well,” Turner said.
His top concerns are taxes going up and affordable housing. “We’ve got to … help people who have lived in this town a long time and contributed to the town who are having trouble paying their taxes.”
He called the national housing market “way out of control.”
“A bunch of us have become millionaires on paper. But if we go to sell our house, where are we going to move? If you’re going to be in the same town or in the same type of location, you pay it on the other end and then some,” he said.
When asked about managing the budget, Turner answered the question by appearing to take issue with a now discontinued tax stabilization program for seniors.
He then spent much of his allotted time talking about how councilors treated one another with respect when he was a part of the town council.
He thinks the respect was due to the fact that “agenda was not part of the scenario with most of those councilors. They were people that got on the Town Council with the idea of doing the best they can for all of the citizens of Cumberland.”
On housing, he seemed to echo some of his fellow candidates in advocating for more slow and deliberate growth.
“Sooner or later when you increase the density … you create a situation that changes the atmosphere of the town,” he said.
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