BIDDEFORD – On Election Day, Nov. 7,  in addition to state referendum questions, Biddeford residents will vote on a number of local items, including a new mayor, members of the city council, including three contested seats — the reminder of the seats are unopposed — a referendum question, and more.

Jason Litalien and Roger Beaupre are running for Ward 3 city councilor, which Marty Grohman will be vacating in his bid to Biddeford’s mayor against Susan Deschambault. Three people, Doris Ortiz and Marc Lessard, both currently on the city council, as well as Gregg Shapiro.

Lessard, 60, has served on the city council since 1993 and is the director of External Contract Manufacturing at HP Hood. He has been married for 36 years and has two children and three grandchildren.

“I will continue to be the loudest voice for limiting tax burden on our citizens,” Lessard said in an email. “Inflation has forced costs to accelerate more than any other time I can recall since serving on the City Council. I am the only fiscal conservative on the council and have forced review of spending to try and keep within an acceptable range for taxpayers.”

Shapiro is a Syracuse University graduate and vice president of Sales and Business Development at Green Tree Event Consultants. He is divorced with one daughter and one granddaughter. Though he has no elected positions, Shapiro is a member of Biddeford Recycling and Waste Management Commission.

Ortiz, 55, works for Bernstein Shur. She is married with two children. For the past four years, Ortiz has held the seat of councilor at-large, as well as the chair of Mayor’s Affordable Housing Taskforce, and the vice chair of Biddeford, Saco, OOB Transit. She’s also a member of the Recycling and Waste Management Commission, Personnel Committee, the Downtown Committee, the Policy Committee, and the Biddeford Citizens Advisory Committee.

All three candidates said affordable housing is a top priority.

“Reaching out to regional contacts to focus on resources for the unhoused and seniors on fixed incomes who face rising costs are top priorities for the next two years,” said Ortiz.

Affordable housing is a top priority for Lessard, as well. “At my urging,” he said, “we have enacted density bonuses, back lots and frontage reductions which have all yielded help for housing. I am the only Councilor to have proposed housing assistance which has been enacted.”

” All citizens of Biddeford need to have access to a safe and affordable home,” Shapiro said. “It’s imperative that the city develop strategies to better plan for appropriate housing for the very folks that will work in its shops, restaurants and other businesses. … Developers are waking up to all that Biddeford has to offer, but it cannot be done at the expense of the city’s future.”

Another issue faced in Biddeford includes, Shapiro said, “from our new neighbors who have arrived from other countries, to the wonders of our flourishing LGBTQ citizens, all need to be safe, loved and celebrated.”

“The fix must be nuanced,” said Councilor At-Large Doris Ortiz about the “crisis-level” issue of affordable housing in Biddeford. Ortiz is running for re-election. Courtesy photo.Ortiz says the lack of affordable housing in Biddeford is reaching “crisis-levels.” “The fix,” she said, “must be nuanced, and supposed fixes like rent control have been shown to hurt communities overall. I’ve spent the last year pushing hard for inclusionary zoning here in Biddeford that would force large developers coming to our city to include affordable housing as part of their projects.”

Both candidates are informed by their work experience outside the city council – for Lessard, business, and for Ortiz, law. Lessard said his job at HP Hood allows him to understand market conditions and negotiate contracts. He said this has endowed him with “A rare balance of fiscal responsibility and forward planning which are critical to being successful at representing citizens of a community.”

 

Beaupre is married and is a graduate of St. Louis High School and the University of Souther Maine and earned a master’s in Business Administration from Nasson College. After a stint in the U.S. Air Force after high school, he was hired by the Biddeford Police Department, working his way up to chief of in 1981, and retiring last year. Beaupre served as staff member to multiple City Council subcommittees, on the Executive Board of the Maine Chiefs of Police Associated as a representative of District 1 (York County), received multiple awards and volunteered for numerous civic and municipal organization.

He said the biggest problems he sees facing Biddeford include property taxes, parking and traffic and ad affordable and available housing.

Rising property taxes “tops the list of issues that concern me,” Beaupre said in an email. “Like the homeowner struggling to make ends meet, the city needs to look more closely at its cost of doing business and scale back some of the operating expenses.”

Beaupre said he is also concerned about parking and traffic in Biddeford. Regarding parking, he noted that the city built a parking garage several years ago and also began charging downtown visitors to park in the previously free city-owned service parking lots “to make up the difference in lost revenue to the owners of the Garage, which, by the way, is operating at 25 – 33% capacity. The city has been paying these operating deficits since the garage first opened. … The city must regain control of its surface lots, thereby relieving some of the pressures on Main Street and Lincoln Street.”

Beaupre also said traffic is increasing in Biddeford and that “An increase in speed enforcement and better coordination of the traffic lights is a must.”.

Regarding the lack of affordable and available housing, Beaupre said, “This problem is not isolated to Biddeford and needs to be addressed on a much broader scale. The city needs to continue to work with State Legislative officials in areas of property tax relief and subsidized housing. Meeting the needs of those in crisis cannot depend on the local taxpayer; this needs to be the responsibility of individual municipalities.”

Jason Litalien, Esq, 48, owns Litalien Law in Biddeford. He ran for mayor in 2019 but was defeated by Casavant.

“My biggest concerns are mostly the same as four years ago when I ran for Mayor,” Litalien said in an email, “because nothing has changed. The city continues ignoring the citizens, taxes are always increasing, and our elderly population needs more protection and tax assistance.”

He cited the Pearl Street parking garage as an example of poor leadership in Biddeford, leading to steep stabilization payments that subsidize the costs of the inadequately filled garage.

“We need to take control of the spending and make better use of the tax money that we receive,” Litalien said. “We need to stop giving kickbacks to developers in the form of credit enhancements and make these wealthy companies pay their fair share. TIF money can be used for more than subsidizing the garage and if it is, then there is less that the residents need to pay for.”

A municipal referendum question will also appear on the ballot, in addition to eight state referendum questions. The municipal question will decide whether $9 million will be issued from the city’s general obligation bonds to pay for an addition to Biddeford Primary School. The addition would house the city’s kindergarten students. Kindergarten students currently attend the John F. Kennedy School.

People can vote in person Tuesday, Nov. 7, at the Tiger Gym at Biddeford High School on Maplewood Avenue or by absentee ballot. Absentee ballots will available starting Oct. 7 and will be available at the City Clerk’s Office.

 

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