Incumbent Westbrook Mayor Bruce Chuluda faces a strong challenge from Colleen Hilton.

All over the city, residents are opening their doors to find the faces behind the names written on the signs that line Westbrook’s roads. With just more than two weeks until the election, local candidates are coming into the heat of their campaigns, and at the center of it all are mayoral candidates Colleen Hilton and Bruce Chuluda.

Both say they’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from the residents they’ve come across on the trail.

For Chuluda, those are the people he’s met during his past six years as mayor – ones who have stopped by his Saturday office hours, have stood at the podium in the council chambers or have shaken his hand at a city event. For Hilton, who grew up in Westbrook and came back to raise her own family, they’re the friends of her parents or her six siblings. They’re the people she’s met through the schools – by way of both her own three children and her decade on the School Committee.

Westbrook is one of few municipalities in Maine to have a strong-mayor form of government. The position’s powers include the ability to set council meeting agendas, hire and fire city staff and veto council

decisions.

But the question remains whether Westbrook residents are satisfied with the way city’s been running or are ready for a change. While Hilton offers strong managerial experience and a fresh perspective on the city, Chuluda has proven himself as an involved and accessible mayor. By most accounts, it’s a race that’s too close to call.

THE CONTENDERS

Despite Hilton’s years of public service – a pastime she says runs in her family – the Democratic candidate is a relatively new face in city politics, at least compared to Chuluda’s past opponents. In the three previous elections, the Republican uprooted incumbent Mayor Don Esty and twice defeated former City Councilor Jim Violette.

But that doesn’t mean she’s unknown. The daughter of Mary Jane and former City Councilor Malcolm Noyes, Hilton, 53, attended elementary school at Forest Street School and junior high at what’s now Presumpscot Commons. She graduated from Westbrook High School in 1974, the same year as former Mayor Esty.

“We liked to joke that he cheated off my papers,” said Hilton, who went on to earn a nursing degree from the University of Southern Maine.

After years of working as a nurse and a supervisor in hospitals and nursing homes, in 2000, Hilton became the chief executive officer of VNA Home Health and Hospice in South Portland. She lives on Berkeley Street with her husband Bill, and they have three children in their 20s.

Chuluda, 61, lives on Spring Street with his daughter Lisa and his 3-year-old granddaughter Madison. Originally from Massachusetts, he and his late wife Vickie moved to Westbrook – her hometown – in the 1970s. Chuluda, who graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in economics, took a job as a loan officer for Casco Northern Bank when he moved to Maine. Since then he has worked for Westbrook Mercy Hospital and L.L. Bean. He’s now employed by the Maine Turnpike Authority as a part-time toll collector.

Chuluda said his flexible day job allows him to dedicate himself to serving the city as mayor, which he guessed takes up about 30 hours a week. Between daytime meetings with staff, residents and prospective businesses, Chuluda said, it would be hard to work full-time simultaneously in order “to give it the kind of attention it deserves.”

Hilton had that concern, too, which is why she consulted with a few former Westbrook mayors before deciding to run. Though she knew she was ready to give up her seat on the School Committee, Hilton first considered running for City Council before she was talked into vying for the mayor’s office. With a nod of approval from her family, the former mayors gave Hilton the final vote of confidence she needed.

“I know how to manage and balance and juggle a lot of things,” she said. “I’m not a sit still sort of person.”

THE EDGE

With her campaign in full swing, Hilton’s getting her first feel for the extra work that comes with the job. Both candidates have been knocking on doors, handing out brochures and setting up signs, trying to get their message out into the community, one resident at a time. Early signs make it hard to tell who has the edge.

An unscientific poll posted on the Westbrook Diarist, a Web site which recently became active again after a four-month hiatus, indicates the favorite is Hilton, who received 66 percent of the 45 votes placed by mid-day Wednesday. The numbers fall in her favor in the voter registry, too, where 38 percent identify as Democrats and 23 percent as Republicans. And if the city caucuses are any indication of who’s more likely to come out to the polls in November, Hilton would have the upper hand there, as well. More than 100 Democrats showed up to the party’s caucus in September, while there were only a couple of dozen at the Republicans’.

Head down to the River’s Edge Deli any early morning, however, and the coffee klatch will offer a different point of view.

“I have no problem with the mayor we’ve got. I think he’s done a good job,” said George Walker, a Republican and lifelong resident of the city.

Phil Charest, also a Republican, said Hilton’s commitment to the School Committee shows “she’s paid her dues” to the city, but he doesn’t see that as a reason to oust Chuluda.

“The mayor’s fine,” he said.

Local conservative radio host Ray Richardson agreed that Chuluda’s performance as mayor has earned him another term in office.

“I have great respect for Colleen Hilton, but this race isn’t about her. This race is about Bruce Chuluda,” he said.

According to Richardson, residents need to ask themselves whether they believe Chuluda has kept the promises he made in his last campaign.

“I think the answer is, absolutely,” he said.

PROMISES

In his inaugural address nearly two years ago, the only specific plan Chuluda brought forth was to hold a series of meetings around the city that would include department heads and councilors, in order to make them more accessible to the people. Only two of those meetings ever occurred. Chuluda said this week he didn’t continue to schedule them because other committees were formed that gave residents the chance to be involved in their city.

Chuluda also said at his inauguration that he’d like to have more diverse businesses in town and increase the industrial and commercial base in the city. Since then, a debate has swirled around the proposed expansion of Pike Industries’ Spring Street quarry and the future of that area of the city. Chuluda initiated the ongoing effort to rezone that land in order to prevent Pike from expanding and turn the Five Star Industrial Park into a more attractive place for high-tech businesses.

Hilton hasn’t come forward with a strong position on the potential rezoning, but did say she’s taking into consideration the effect any change in that area would have on nearby residents, not just the businesses there. Talking to people in the Birdland neighborhood, she’s heard a lot of opposition to an expansion of the quarrying company.

That rezoning debate is one of several struggles facing the city today that weren’t issues when Chuluda was last elected. Perhaps the most pressing one, though, is the not a local concern, but a global one – the economy.

Depending on the outcome of the referendum questions that could take away excise tax revenue and limit government spending, the city could end up in an even more dire situation than last year, when a $580,000 shortfall resulted in Chuluda laying off nine employees.

“I don’t foresee things getting better anytime soon,” said Chuluda, who said the city is looking at its options and wouldn’t rule more layoffs out of the equation.

“I’m entrusted with 16,000-plus residents. I still need to worry about the general taxpayer,” he said.

To Hilton, it seemed odd that the city was faced with such a large shortfall so suddenly last year. She believes more proactive steps could have been taken beforehand. This year, she said, is no different.

“We all know we can expect to see declining support from so many revenue sources and we will need to be very creative with managing in this economy,” she said.

FUTURE PLANS

Still, the economy will eventually turn around, and, according to City Council John O’Hara, the city needs to make sure it’s ready when that time comes, too.

“The focus right now for the community is to step back and plan for when the pendulum swings the other way,” said O’Hara, a Republican whose 12 years as a city councilor make him the longest serving current member of the board.

“I’ve heard nothing from Bruce’s administration about planning,” he said. “I don’t know what Colleen’s plan is.”

For Chuluda, keeping taxes affordable in a down economy and preparing for future development come down to the same effort – “to try to bring in new businesses and retain the existing ones.”

In addition to using grant and tax increment financing funds to improve the Five Star Industrial Park, Chuluda said, he’d like to see improvements to parking, traffic management and public amenities on Main Street for the further revitalization of the downtown. He said he’ll also continue to work with Sappi to redevelop its underused industrial site on Warren Avenue.

But before new companies come to Westbrook, Hilton said, she believes the zoning throughout the city needs to be discussed, taking businesses and residents into account.

“It seems to me that far too many exceptions keep coming before the council. I would hope we could tackle this as a policy matter beyond just the Pike concern,” she said.

One complaint Hilton said she’s frequently encountered talking to local business owners is about the slow pace that business is done in the city. She believes a leader could speed that up by holding city workers more accountable for getting their jobs done.

However, there’s another issue that’s held up city processes – the long-strained relationship between Chuluda and the mostly Democratic City Council. Both the recycling program that was implemented this month and the local referendum on whether to hold a charter commission, which is now scheduled for June, were the subject of years-long debates between the council and the mayor.

Hilton said she thinks Westbrook would benefit if the mayor and council were “working together to move the city forward and not getting hung up on nonsensical party politics.”

However, some say that tension is natural, regardless of party affiliation.

“I think there will always be issues between the council and the administration,” said O’Hara. “It’s a system of checks and balances.”

O’Hara said he believes some issues deserve to be debated long and hard, and Chuluda agreed.

“We’ve had our differences,” the mayor said. “I don’t think that’s bad.”

Hilton sees at least one ongoing issue that’s in need of a new direction. The problems within the fire department, which have put two employees on paid leave for more than a year, are something Hilton would like to resolve immediately.

“I’m extremely concerned with the mounting legal bills on this protracted issue. I have to believe that with the right leadership, we can resolve the culture and climate issues that have prolonged this matter,” she said.

Chuluda agrees that the fire department problems are long overdue for a resolution, but said someone who hasn’t been involved and doesn’t know the details of the matter is not in a place to comment about what should or shouldn’t happen.

“I don’t think that’s fair,” he said. “We’re hamstrung by a process.”

Still, stronger leadership is one thing some say the city is lacking.

“You have to manage people well,” said City Council President Brendan Rielly. “Colleen brings that in spades.”

However, Chuluda and his supporters emphasize the relationship he has with Westbrook’s people, not just city employees.

“I’ve been open and receptive and responsive to residents,” said Chuluda, who, in his first term, started holding Saturday open office hours and airing a monthly call-in show on the city’s public access station.

“He’s always around. He’s involved,” said Charest, at River’s Edge.

According to O’Hara, both contenders have their good points.

“Bruce is a formidable opponent, and Colleen is a challenger to be reckoned with,” he said. “I think both are very strong candidates.”

Mike White, a Westbrook resident and business owner, who is never shy to offer his opinion to city officials, said it would be hard for him to take a side – and sees how it would be the same for other residents.

“It should be a close race,” he said.

Left, Colleen Hilton spent much of Friday afternoon canvassing the Monroe Avenue neighborhood, going door to door in support of her campaign to replace Bruce Chuluda as mayor of Westbrook. Right, Chuluda walks the streets in the Birdland section of Westbrook on Monday, the Columbus Day holiday. The mayor was canvassing the Ward 2 neighborhood seeking support for his re-election campaign. (Photos by Rich Obrey)

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