PORTLAND – Christopher Vail, a Portland firefighter, will be allowed to run for mayor after all.

City officials told Vail two weeks ago that he wouldn’t be given a nominating petition to circulate because of a city policy barring employees from running for an elected municipal position.

But when Vail challenged that decision and his lawyer prepared to ask a judge to bar enforcement of the policy, the city backed down.

“It’s a question of what trumped what, as far as the city’s personnel policy and my rights as an American citizen,” Vail said Thursday when he picked up the previously off-limits petitions.

That makes Vail one of 18 candidates for mayor, a position that will be chosen by voters for the first time since 1923. So far, all the candidates except Zouhair Bouzrara have picked up and are presumably circulating the nominating petitions for the 300 to 500 signatures needed for a spot on the ballot. But unlike Vail, the others didn’t have to fight for the petitions.

“It’s been a lot of work just to get there and I haven’t even gotten out on the campaign trail yet,” he said.

Vail, 39, said the issue wasn’t raised when he registered as a candidate in January and he was only informed of the policy on June 24, a week before nominating petitions for the November election were available to candidates.

Gary Wood, the city’s lawyer, said the question was raised at a meeting of the city’s top administrators last month. He researched the policy, which says “employees are to refrain from seeking or accepting nomination or election to any office in municipal government,” then notified Vail that he couldn’t run.

Vail hired a lawyer, David Laurie, who said the policy is “constitutionally suspect.” Laurie said the policy may have been aimed at preventing an employee from holding a city office to gain leverage over a supervisor, but the mayor won’t be able to hire and fire employees and the role is considered a policy-making one, rather than management. He also noted the mayor’s post is considered full-time — the pay will be about $66,000 a year — and the election winner will likely give up his or her previous job.

Laurie also said that a violation of employee policies could lead to discipline, but the city has no right to prevent Vail from running and could only discipline Vail after he gained a spot on the ballot.

Wood said he won’t recommend any discipline because the policy doesn’t state what problem the city is trying to avoid with the prohibition, making it hard to defend in court or before an arbitrator.

Wood also said court rulings on prohibitions on city employees running for office have generally supported such bans when the office is partisan, but the Portland mayoral election is non-partisan.

The city also clarified the term of office for the mayor Thursday after several candidates noted that the nominating petitions said the mayor will be elected to a three-year term. The term is four years.

The city clerk’s office blamed a typo for the error and said all the candidates have been notified of the mistake.

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com