The new president of the Westbrook City Council Monday announced the creation of a council committee to focus on housing and economic development.
David Morse, the council’s former vice president, was elected president in a unanimous vote. He was nominated by Anna Turcotte, immediate past president, and he appointed Turcotte vice president.
Morse
“One of the greatest challenges of our time is the persistent housing crisis,” Morse said in announcing the new committee. “It is pushing families living on the edge into homelessness and pricing families out of the communities they have come to call home.”
He said the number of homeless students in Westbrook’s school district is staggering.
Morse named Councilor Claude Rwaganje as chairman of the new committee with Councilor Michael Shaughnessy as vice chair.
Other council committee assignments announced Monday are: Committee of the Whole, Shaughnessy, chair, and Turcotte, vice chair; Facilities and Streets, Councilor Victor Chau, chair, and Councilor Gary Rairdon, vice chair; Finance, Councilor Jennifer Munro, chair, and Chau, vice chair; Public Safety, Rairdon, chair, and Rwaganje, vice chair.
As chair of the council’s Finance Committee, Munro will serve as a “liaison” to the School Committee during the budget season, Morse said in a press release. He hopes to set a policy that a council member would serve as as an “ex officio non voting member” of the school board’s Finance Committee to facilitate understanding and provide a line of communication between the council and board.
Morse joined the City Council in September 2019 when selected by the council to fill a vacancy to represent Westbrook’s Ward 1. He was then twice elected by voters in November 2019 and in November 2022.
“I pledge to work diligently to assist this council in fulfilling its duties as the legislative power of our great city,” Morse said in the press release.
“It is an honor to be elected by my fellow elected public servants to lead this council as president,” he said. “For as long as I serve in this role I pledge to commit myself to being worthy of the confidence my colleagues here have shown in me this evening.”
Morse, an attorney, is a graduate of Westbrook High School, Saint Joseph’s College of Maine and the University of Maine School of Law.
Turcotte did not respond to an email request for comment by the American Journal deadline Wednesday.
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