CHARTER COMMISSION LEANING TOWARDS WEAK MAYOR

Tom Bell, Portland Press Herald - The Portland Charter Commission has drafted a job description for a popularly elected mayor. . . Under the commission's proposal, the mayor would be a voting member of the council and have no power to hire or fire anybody. The mayor would chair the council meetings and be assigned the job of managing the budget process for the city and the School Department in a "consensus-building" manner, Plumb said. Any additional power, she said, would come from the political authority of having won a citywide election. The mayor would serve a four-year term. . .