PORTLAND — When George Flaherty was Portland’s assistant city manager, he refused to take a vacation. So his boss, John Menario, ordered him to leave the office and not come back for two weeks.

“At 6 p.m., George would sneak in with his own key and work until midnight,” said Tom Valleau, a friend and co-worker in the city administration.

Flaherty, who dedicated 35 years to serving Maine’s largest city, much of it as public works director, died Saturday from complications from a stroke. He was 77.

Flaherty was a folksy administrator whose demeanor often brought people together over contentious issues.

When the state Department of Environmental Protection cracked down on Portland for dumping snow from city streets alongside Back Cove, Flaherty wound up on national television, being interviewed by Barbara Walters atop a pile of snow dubbed “Mount Flaherty.”

“As difficult as the situation was … George turned it into a creative community project that was, maybe not funny, but humorous,” said former City Manager Joe Gray.

Flaherty was a Portland native who had a deep affection for the city, said friends and former colleagues.

“George was a totally dedicated, committed person for Portland,” Gray said.

Flaherty married his wife, Doris, in 1958. On Monday, she remembered the day they met. She was standing at a bus stop at Westbrook College and he drove past her and asked if she wanted a ride.

“He took me home and that was the beginning,” she said.

Flaherty began working for the city in 1963 as assistant purchasing agent. He went on to work as internal auditor, deputy finance director, assistant city manager and, then, public works director for 19 years. He retired from that position in 1994, but stayed on as director of environmental services, intergovernmental affairs and island affairs.

Flaherty retired from the city in 1996, then took a job as Cumberland County’s emergency management director.

City attorney Gary Wood said Flaherty was one of his all-time favorite colleagues.

“George had a way of doing what he wanted to and when,” Wood said. “He drove us nuts, but with a sense of humor.”

Valleau recalled a Flaherty gem.

“It was January and he was watching a football game on Sunday,” Valleau said. A woman called him, complaining that a plow had pushed a mound of snow across her driveway.

“Twenty minutes go by, and this fat little guy in a beater Pontiac is shoveling the driveway,” Valleau said. The woman said she didn’t mean for Flaherty, the public works director, to clear her driveway.

His reply?

“If I call somebody in, it’s four hours at time and a half. I don’t mind shoveling this driveway,’ ” Valleau said. “It’s typical George.”

 

Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at: dhench@pressherald.com

 

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