Fall 2026

Greetings from your Ward 5 City Councilor!

I've been delayed in this update. My apologies. It's been a very busy summer for everyone trying to do some good in Biddeford. My day-job has also been very demanding. (Turns out that debt-finance is a busy practice area when the economy is being driven off of a cliff). But it's a pleasant Saturday morning in autumn in Maine, so I'm finally going to sit myself down & give you the view from behind the dais. As always, reach out with questions or comments - it's what I'm here for.

ICE

On July 13, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Biddeford resident, was shot and killed in broad daylight right on the street. The person who killed him was a uniformed agent of the federal government.

As a gun owner, I keep thinking about the family of Randy Weaver, killed by federal agents at Ruby Ridge. As a Jew, I keep thinking that some historical similarities are clear as kristall.

I did my best to check in on as many people as possible during this period. I reached out to as many immigrant-rights organizations as I could locate. I went door to door downtown to check on businesses and their owners and employees. I went door-to-door in City Hall and throughout our many department buildings and I checked in with every person I could find. I've reached out to local law enforcement partners, civil-rights attorneys, and all my old friends in immigration law practice. I also tried to direct fundraising efforts towards good groups doing good work in this space. Really I was just trying to find ways to feel helpful because otherwise I spent this whole period just generally feeling like hell.

As an aside: being in politics is weird, because when I talk about stuff I did that I'm proud of doing, I feel like a boastful piece of trash, but if I don't talk about it then no one will know, which feels kind of like a dereliction of duty, and honestly it robs me of the only major source of good feeling that public service provides to me. It is an unresolvable contradiction. I'm trying to chart a middle path between silence and Rick Flair here; we'll see what I can manage.

One of my clearest memories of this period was an undue amount of me freaking out at our Public Safety department-heads about the vulnerability of the protesters, because the murder of Heather Heyer haunts me. Thank you to them for putting up with my paranoia - and doubly thank you for putting up crash-barriers around the protest hub. I wrote about my general thankfulness a bit in the Biddeford Gazette here: https://biddeford-gazette.com/2026/07/20/opinion-heart-filled-with-gratitude-how-can-we-keep-our-city-safe/

On the advice of local clergy and mental healthy professionals (and there's a surprising amount of overlap there, I learned), I requested that the City have a public meeting to discuss this matter. In the moment, attending that meeting was one of the worst things I've ever been through, because the knowledge that I have some power, and yet was unable to do anything to prevent this, and also will be unlikely to prevent this in the future, made me want to jump off a fucking bridge. But in the long-term it was the beginning of trauma recovery for me, and so on a purely selfish level, I am very glad the City provided this.

The City is currently considering codifying its long-standing policy of noncooperation with federal immigration authorities. I spoke about how I am in favor of this, because it will do very close to nothing, and yet is also the very most that I can find for us to do. The nut of my comments are https://biddefordme.portal.civicclerk.com/event/4402/media at 1:31:00.

In the words of Surah Al-Baqarah (2:220) that I was pleased to quote to Council, in my terrible attempt at Arabic and in my marginally less terrible English: and if ye mingle your affairs with theirs, then they are your brothers.

THE PURSE-STRINGS

My last update was right at the end of the budget season, which set the City tax rate.

The vast majority of our budget increase came as a result of increasing personnel costs; the vast majority of those are based on union contracts already agreed to. (Increases are baked in for next year as well).

We also saw many increases in material costs due to President Trump's tariffs. We will be feeling more of these next budget cycle - as well as the significant pain of increase fuel costs occasioned by President Trump attacking Iran.

Our tax rate went up this year, but it went up a whole lot less than in most local municipalities. The reason for this comparatively modest increase is simple: we made a bunch of cuts. Some of these cuts were straightforwardly positive. Some I had no trouble voting to oppose. Such is budgeting.

Many of these cuts came from social services. The library budget was cut $250k. Seeds of Hope (our primary homeless service coordinator), the Biddeford Food Pantry, Heart Of Biddeford (our Main Street organization) - all got haircuts. Several organizations (such as La Kermesse) were totally defunded. I opposed many of these cuts, agreed with some of them, and proposed a few cuts of my own which were rejected. Again, c'est la guerre.

Having now been through a Biddeford budget cycle, and having also recieved feedback from my opposite numbers in other cities about how their budget committees go about this, I have a number of comments on how we do things. I have (repeatedly) requested that this conversation come before Council; I hope it gets there early enough that our partner organizations have time to provide us the data and vision that we desire.

I also spoke a bit about the future of Biddeford - or more specifically, my desire for us to understand and chart that future: https://biddefordme.portal.civicclerk.com/event/4410/files/agenda/8483 (at 2:01:50).

I will tell you that I am was significantly disappointed by the funding cuts that were made (and the much deeper cuts proposed!) to downtown resources for businesses and for the business environment. This area needs more resources, not less, if our businesses want to thrive - and if all our property values want to benefit from a thriving downtown. I have been very impressed by the great, great lengths that city staff has gone to support Main Street and its businesses in the micro. I am very worried what happens when the funding isn't there to build on those foundations.

I'm also worried about the macro. The national and global economic situations are no boon to this consumer's confidence. More effort will be needed to keep what we have built... not less. Fortunately our municipal partners have been unbelievably hard at work (very significant shoutout to the Heart Of Biddeford). I hope I can provide them the support they deserve.

CITY MANAGER

In June of this year, City Manager Truc Dever announced her resignation. I will very much miss working with Truc, whose professionalism, competence, and commitment, were about the highest that I have experienced by anyone in my career. She realized that the key to rebuilding City Hall was to create an atmosphere of professional leadership - of both compassion and expectation - which would make people actually want to come work for the City of Biddeford, and have their work result in better lives for all Biddeford residents. I consider her work in this direction to have been exemplary.

We are currently at work hiring a new city manager. I'm not allowed to say much here, but I expect that the management team will be making an update in the fairly near, and that I am allowing myself to be highly optimistic.

BIDDEFORD'S FINANCIAL SITUATION

In a nutshell: the books are balanced and audited; the coffers can cough up what is needed; the ship of government is sailing ahead. But one thing that I have learned is how comically underfunded Biddeford's government is and has been.

For example, we have a hundred million dollars in priority capital expenditures projected over the next ten years. Our year allocation to capex should be about 10% of that. It has been about 0.5%. A lot of our infrastructure is outdated if not outright falling apart. (The walls in our police station looks like they recently went through an earthquake. Also our police station is just a repurposed movie theater from the 1920s.) For another example, almost all municipalities in Maine fund a deputy city clerk. The few that don't all have three-figure populations... or are Biddeford. And let's just say that I'm sure there are many examples I haven't even learned about yet.

This leanness did allow Biddeford to have low property taxes during its very lean decades recovering from the closures of our factories and the job loss resulting from that. Now it requires us to raise property taxes if we want to actually escape those lean years. (And also it gives us very little fat to trim during this difficult time.)

THE AUDITS

It has often been noted that our municipal audits are still a few years behind. I must note a few things about this.

• many if not most municipalities in Maine are delinquent in their audits right now. Many are way more delinquent than Biddeford.

• a lot of this is the pure and simple result of COVID. Not only was it a hellish time to be running a city, but it was a time of essentially unprecedented changes in any Maine city

• the COVID period also saw an unprecedented shortage of accounting and finance professionals. Municipalities had a hard time keeping people away from much higher salaries in the private sector. The resulting labor shortage was a huge contributor to audit delinquency

• a lot of this was downstream of the absolute havoc wreaked on this department - as to many others - by previous City administrations. Gerry had to rebuild the department almost from scratch, an act of magic that bordered on friggin' necromancy.

• at this point, the City-side audit is done and has been done for a while. My understanding is that we are mostly waiting for the School-side of things to get completed. So for most intents and purposes, "the audit" is done. and yet, still we wait.

• ..,and as soon as the audits are complete, we have to go out to bond on the $6m in rec funding that the voters approved, which will have significant tax implications. Which isn't much but it isn't trivial neither!

I have been consistently impressed by the finance department. Finance Director Gerry Matherne brings an unbelievable energy to her department. She's a natural leader. (She'd throw something at me for saying so, but she is.) Big ups to Nate and Dena who provide exemplary horsepower and acumen. Thank you to the team for remaining and for putting in the work.

COMMITTEE WORK

I serve as Council liaison to the Heart Of Biddeford and to the Biddeford Housing Authority. Both have been time-intensive commitments, though both have been very rewarding... in very different ways. I also serve on the Citizens Advisory Committe, the powerful Policy committe, and the DEI committee. I don't have any major updates from any committee that is of general relevance to Ward 5. I mostly highlight this just so you guys know that I'm actually earning my $100 a month.

Unrelated to official duties, I've also volunteered with Maine Veterinary Internal Medicine's second free vet clinic for those who can't otherwise afford it. Thank you to the McArthur Library for hosting and facilitating this event. I have done trail cleanup in Clifford Park, event gofering for RiverJam, and shown my support to the University of New England at several events. I wish I had more time for community engagement like this, just because I find it personally very fulfilling - but it's not honestly the best use of my time during my term of office.

I have also a few modest irons in the fire which might be more actually beneficial to the community, but let's see if I can actually get them done before I brag about them.

CONSTITUENT SERVICES

Over the course of the summer, I have helped several residents report code violations in their homes - all of which appear to have been rapidly and fully addressed. (Shout out to Roby Fecteau, who is one of the most straight-shooting and competent guys I have ever known, ever). I've also helped several people living in subsidized housing who were having difficulties, which I feel very good about. I've been busy connecting residents to resources, with a special shoutout to Maine Access Points for doing sharps cleanup. I've also established good relationships with most of the downtown developers and several prospective business-owners, and helped connect them with people like Brian Clark (our new rockstar EDD) and other resources.

LEARNING

I have learned so much about how the City operates just by taking the time to visit with and listen to the City staff. I've also reached out to many of our partners in county and state government to learn more about resources and responsibilities. I feel like I'm getting a damn second graduate degree, and the amount of time this has taken up from my schedule is staggering - but like, I want to do a good job, so, here we are.

In this regard, I would like to give especial thanks to so many City staff that I cannot name them, as well as the fine people of UNE, SMPDC, GPCOG, MMA, YCEMA, my old friends at the BCM, and the fellow-idiots in ME-DSA.

WARD 5 SPECIFIC UPDATES

Not a lot. The economic situation, the federal administration's austerity policies, the lack of a full-time city manager, the lack of completed audits, the lack of council appetite to spend money, the summer's lack of peace - all has prevented a great deal from happening.

GOAL SETTING

At some point, the Council is going to have a special meeting to engage in discussion of our goals. At the moment - looking both at city needs and council appetites - my thought is to push for the following:

• Fund a city-wide home value re-evaluation, which I expect will result in a significant improvement in the allocation of tax burden towards high-value properties.

• Long-term strategic planning - including mil rate projections, & ways to bring those down

• Preparing shovel-ready projects for when a change in federal government allows for them to be funded (cough pedestrian bridge to the Amtrak Station cough)

• Addressing critical housing shortages for people with low or no incomes

• I also have a few small suggestions for how the City could improve information dissemination, particularly around the functions of City departments and staff.

• Also, what would it take to have someone offer Sunday dim sum brunch in this town? I am Jewish and this culinary ritual is of haplogroupic necessity to me and my people, I'm just sayin'.

Let me know if I can ever help with anything. And if you've got requests or ideas, let me know them. I'm happy to explore them, or pass them along, or just tell you that I think you're wrong - and then explain why. I don't know anything until someone tells it to me; I cannot pursue something until someone asks me to pursue it. So hit me up, compadres. I work for you.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find a way to get into Magnus before Chef Rafi ends his residency at the end of the month. Jeeze louise, man, talk about the end of an era. Much love and thanks, Chef, and to the whole crew around him.

-david kurtz

biddeford city council, ward 5