A political newcomer and a former elected official are seeking the District 5 seat being vacated by South Portland Mayor Gerard Jalbert this fall.

The contest is between Brad Fox, a retired educator and volunteer, and Alan Livingston, who has formerly served on both the school board and the council.

The Current asked each candidate the same questions in order to assist voters in deciding whom to support at the polls on Nov. 4.

Brad Fox

Age: 66

Occupation: Retired high school principal, current substitute teacher and an international student exchange coordinator for the Aspect Foundation

Political experience: Volunteer on various municipal boards and commissions in other communities

Q: Why are you running for a seat on the South Portland City Council?

A: I’m running for City Council because I believe that District 5’s incredibly diverse renters’ community should have a supportive voice in city government. I am the only candidate who is a tenant even though thousands of our citizens are renters. I will be their voice on our City Council.

I am a retired high school principal who is substitute teaching the kids in our local schools. I have also attended many community meetings and events, volunteered at the Redbank Gym’s informational dinners, run an after-school tutoring program, and supervised the student breakfast program for the Community Partnership for Protecting Children.

I’m running for City Council to make sure we keep our promise to maintain and improve our quality of life by protecting our air and water, protecting and expanding the green space in South Portland and creating employment opportunities.

I’m running for council because, having worked with the folks in my community for years, I believe that I can voice their views on the council and help the council act in the interests of all the people of South Portland. I believe that I have the passion, energy, determination and heart to create a better community.

Q: What are the three biggest issues facing South Portland?

A: 1. Protecting our environment. 2. Continuing to improve our schools and educational opportunity for our children and 3. Promoting diverse economic development and local job growth.

Q: What is your stance on the referendum to legalize possession of a small amount of recreational marijuana?

A: As a former high school principal, I’ve had my fair share of dealings with students using drugs and alcohol. We certainly don’t want either drugs or alcohol in our schools. But I think our failed war on drugs has created more problems than it has solved.

While I doubt that our ballot measure will have much of an impact because of Maine state law, I don’t believe that marijuana users should go to jail. I think Colorado and Washington’s experiment should be watched closely.

Q: South Portland has taken steps in recent years to be environmentally progressive, do you think the city is on the right track?

A: Yes. I fully support the clear skies ordinance, which protects all existing petroleum-related businesses and prevents the pollution associated with the loading of so-called tar sands oil.

I am also glad to see solar panels on our planning department office and would like to see a solar farm at the site of our former landfill. I want to work with the city to implement its climate action plan and continue the work started by the council when it passed the Mayor’s Climate Initiative.

In addition, I support the work done by the Urban Land Institute when it chose South Portland and Portland as models for its resiliency plan, providing assistance in planning for the effects of climate change.

And, I fully support our community gardens. I’ve attended the events for our community garden here at Brickhill and encouraged our neighborhood kids to plant something.

At my District 5 hub meeting I voiced support for a community garden in Redbank. I have also planted ancient wheat at the Congregation Bet Ha’am and helped hammer together raised beds several years ago because I thought we should be making South Portland greener by planting and growing gardens. I think green space and gardens are more important than another 24-hour franchise operation.

Alan Livingston

Age: 64

Occupation: Math teacher at Cheverus High School

Political experience: Former member of the South Portland Board of Education and one term on the South Portland City Council

Q: Why are you running for a seat on the South Portland City Council?

A: My family moved to South Portland in 1955, when I was 5. I entered kindergarten that year at Brown School. Since 1955, with the exception of four years, when my wife Anne and our three children lived in Yarmouth, I’ve resided in South Portland most of my life.

This city has been very good to me and this is my way of giving back to the city that I love. After my last term on the council, I thought that I’d like to run once more when I retired from teaching. But, timing is everything and with Mayor Jalbert’s decision not to run and the District 5 seat available, I decided that now is the time to resume councilor activities.

With my prior council experience and knowledge of the expectations of this position, I should be able to bring guidance to council decisions immediately without the necessity of an initial learning curve.

Q: What are the three biggest issues facing South Portland?

A: 1. Recently, South Portland citizens approved major capital improvements for the high school and the transfer facility. With innovative financing, the tax increase to citizens has been spread out across several years. However, I am concerned about possible future significant tax increases. Thus, I believe the future key word is sustainability. Let’s maintain our current assets, while trying to increase the tax base by influencing business growth throughout the city and continuing to utilize innovative approaches to tax savings.

2. I believe that South Portland has become a proving ground for citizen initiatives. Currently, the council has three options – approve the request, alter the initiative and approve the request or send the initiative to the citizens in a referendum vote.

This is the case for the marijuana issue. The city councilors represent the citizens of South Portland and should have the pulse of the residents. Thus, shouldn’t the council have the authority to deny a citizen initiative from becoming a referendum question?

The town of York recently refused to put the marijuana question on their ballot, action that was supported in the courts. I’d like to investigate to possibility of changing our ordinance to allow counselors that option.

3. Last year, the Legislature removed the circuit breaker program for senior citizens. Fortunately, a new program was approved for the current tax year. However, in my door-to-door discussions with citizens, I have met many senior citizens who have been proud South Portland residents, have paid their taxes faithfully, but continue to see their taxes increase at a disproportionate rate compared to their incomes.

I’d like to investigate possible opportunities to place a ceiling on a senior’s future tax responsibilities.

Q: What is your stance on the referendum to legalize possession of a small amount of recreational marijuana?

A: I am proud of our seven counselors who gave their opinion against the legalization of recreational marijuana. It’s interesting that second-hand cigarette smoke is a major issue in society today, and shouldn’t this also be an issue regarding marijuana?

With 35 years as a high school teacher and coach, I am concerned about the effect this will have on the development of our youth, as well as the effect on their school performance. Obviously, it’s the responsibility of adult leadership when dealing with marijuana, but I believe that use by adults in the household will certainly have an influence on the youngsters in that home.

Police Chief Ed Googins and the police department are against approval of this referendum question. I join the leaders of our community by opposing the legalization of recreational marijuana.

Q: South Portland has taken steps in recent years to be environmentally progressive, do you think the city is on the right track?

A: In my last year as a counselor, even though I disagreed with the initial referendum question, I was in favor of the moratorium regarding the tar sands/oil sands issue. The Draft Ordinance Committee, with a fully transparent objective, served the city very well with their final conclusion regarding the environmentally friendly blue-sky ordinance.

Our city has been very active with improving the water quality of streams and watershed locations. We have also installed solar panels on the roof of the planning office and continually investigate other energy responsible decisions, including a possible solar energy location at the former landfill.

The city has been active in educating the citizens about their recycling habits and has also been a very active participant with ecomaine, as evidenced by City Manager Jim Gailey’s chairmanship of the board there.

The comprehensive plan defines future goals and our city leaders have shown their ambitious intentions with storm-sewer separation projects in Knightville and now Main Street. I am confident that South Portland will continue to be progressive with its desire to improve our environment.