Soule turns focus to inventions, business
By Suzanne Hodgson
Staff Writer
Jim Soule has been a member of the South Portland city council for three terms starting in the 1980’s and the city’s mayor three times. He recently decided to step back from politics. The Sentry spoke with Soule to find out why he is not running for re-election and what he will do with his spare time.
Sentry: In your press release you mentioned you were not running for council in the next election to focus on personal projects. What are those projects?
Soule: My business is prospering very nicely during this supposed economy and it’s requiring more and more attention from me. I own a company A.B.E.S.T. windows and were probably at 20 to 25 percent ahead of last year so I need to spend more attention to the business and I’ve also had a couple of projects that have been on the back burner for some time now that I would like to bring them forward and focus on as well.
Sentry: Can you tell me what the personal projects are?
Soule: A couple of inventions I’m working on. One is transportation related and two others and two others are actually in the sports field and I can’t give you any more information than that.
Sentry: Do you plan on ever getting back into city politics or joining a city advisory committee?
Soule: I never say never.
Sentry: What do you think your best decision as a council member was?
Soule: I think that knowing the importance of the mayor’s role. I served as mayor three times, as you may know and its very important in that position to make sure that all other councilors have the same information that the mayor has.
I always said, no matter who the city manager was at the time, if they were giving me privileged information or I was the first to know about something I would say make sure the rest of the council is aware of this information.
So again making sure that as mayor informing the rest of the council of all information was very important the other thing I would say that I did well was advising the city manager when I felt he should inform the council of some things that he may have been doing that the council should have been brought in on the decision making process.
So I would say building a collaborative base of support rather than letting the council or city manager act unilaterally.
Sentry: You touched on that feeling in the press release that you don’t really think that the mayor and city manager acted to inform the council in your last term.
Soule: Not only do I not think it, it’s a fact.
Sentry: Looking back would you have changed anything in your last term as council member?
Soule: Nope.
Sentry: Did you like being mayor for those three terms better than being a council member or were the two roles too different to compare?
Soule: No. I understood both roles and as a councilor you can be as effective as the mayor as long as there is someone who is keeping the rest of the council informed of the major decisions, I enjoyed both roles actually.
Sentry: In one of your speeches after being inducted as mayor you talked about seceding the greater Portland area and than nothing seemed to really come of it. Was that discussed when you were mayor and what really happened with that?
Soule: Well I would disagree with you when you say nothing really came of that. Actually an offshoot of that became a coalition of mayors of the largest communities of the state of Maine and the realization of what I did do by making that statement which was my intent, to draw a line in the sand and to tell the state you can’t keep going to the well of the supposed prosperous communities.
I say supposed prosperous communities because South Portland’s average income is the same as the state’s average income but they view us as wealthy because of our property wealth and property wealth is the determinate figure for state aid for education so South Portland was hurt tremendously by the funding formula, which only looked at property valuation as opposed to medium income of the families.
Sentry: What other mayors were involved in that coalition?
Soule: Mayor (John) Jenkins of Auburn was the chair of that and Mayor (Ed) Suslovic of Portland who is no longer on the council was very much involved in that as well, but there were 12 to 14 mayors of the largest communities that were involved in that program.
Sentry: At the end of your press release you said that the council needed to return to a check and balance system sort of citing the city manager making changes without consulting the council on them first. How do you think the council can return to this system and are you calling for the city manager to step down so the council can take back some of the power?
Soule: Yes I think that the importance of the three branches of government are spelled out; the council is the legislative branch, we make the laws, the city manager is in charge of enforcing those laws and the judicial branch, the incorporated council, is in charge of making sure there constitutional.
I think that the problem with the current make up of the city manager is he’s usurping some of the powers of the council and not bringing them in a collaborative effort in the decision-making.
Sentry: So are you saying, looking ahead, the council is going to have to take back some of the power the manager is usurping?
Soule: Well, yes. If you look at my last paragraph that would be the best answer I can give you, instead of actually suggesting who the next mayor should be, I would strongly suggest the next mayor council the city manager in his decision-making process as well as making sure the rest of the council is aware of some of the major decision we were left out of in the present system.
Sentry: Do you think that is the biggest challenge the new council will be facing?
Soule: Absolutely, otherwise you might as well have an appointed mayor/city manager with no oversight city council and the council would be ceremonial only.
Sentry: Are there any other changes the council is going to have to make?
Soule: Nope.
Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson may be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233 or news@inthesentry.com.
Staff Writer
Jim Soule has been a member of the South Portland city council for three terms starting in the 1980’s and the city’s mayor three times. He recently decided to step back from politics. The Sentry spoke with Soule to find out why he is not running for re-election and what he will do with his spare time.
Sentry: In your press release you mentioned you were not running for council in the next election to focus on personal projects. What are those projects?
Soule: My business is prospering very nicely during this supposed economy and it’s requiring more and more attention from me. I own a company A.B.E.S.T. windows and were probably at 20 to 25 percent ahead of last year so I need to spend more attention to the business and I’ve also had a couple of projects that have been on the back burner for some time now that I would like to bring them forward and focus on as well.
Sentry: Can you tell me what the personal projects are?
Soule: A couple of inventions I’m working on. One is transportation related and two others and two others are actually in the sports field and I can’t give you any more information than that.
Sentry: Do you plan on ever getting back into city politics or joining a city advisory committee?
Soule: I never say never.
Sentry: What do you think your best decision as a council member was?
Soule: I think that knowing the importance of the mayor’s role. I served as mayor three times, as you may know and its very important in that position to make sure that all other councilors have the same information that the mayor has.
I always said, no matter who the city manager was at the time, if they were giving me privileged information or I was the first to know about something I would say make sure the rest of the council is aware of this information.
So again making sure that as mayor informing the rest of the council of all information was very important the other thing I would say that I did well was advising the city manager when I felt he should inform the council of some things that he may have been doing that the council should have been brought in on the decision making process.
So I would say building a collaborative base of support rather than letting the council or city manager act unilaterally.
Sentry: You touched on that feeling in the press release that you don’t really think that the mayor and city manager acted to inform the council in your last term.
Soule: Not only do I not think it, it’s a fact.
Sentry: Looking back would you have changed anything in your last term as council member?
Soule: Nope.
Sentry: Did you like being mayor for those three terms better than being a council member or were the two roles too different to compare?
Soule: No. I understood both roles and as a councilor you can be as effective as the mayor as long as there is someone who is keeping the rest of the council informed of the major decisions, I enjoyed both roles actually.
Sentry: In one of your speeches after being inducted as mayor you talked about seceding the greater Portland area and than nothing seemed to really come of it. Was that discussed when you were mayor and what really happened with that?
Soule: Well I would disagree with you when you say nothing really came of that. Actually an offshoot of that became a coalition of mayors of the largest communities of the state of Maine and the realization of what I did do by making that statement which was my intent, to draw a line in the sand and to tell the state you can’t keep going to the well of the supposed prosperous communities.
I say supposed prosperous communities because South Portland’s average income is the same as the state’s average income but they view us as wealthy because of our property wealth and property wealth is the determinate figure for state aid for education so South Portland was hurt tremendously by the funding formula, which only looked at property valuation as opposed to medium income of the families.
Sentry: What other mayors were involved in that coalition?
Soule: Mayor (John) Jenkins of Auburn was the chair of that and Mayor (Ed) Suslovic of Portland who is no longer on the council was very much involved in that as well, but there were 12 to 14 mayors of the largest communities that were involved in that program.
Sentry: At the end of your press release you said that the council needed to return to a check and balance system sort of citing the city manager making changes without consulting the council on them first. How do you think the council can return to this system and are you calling for the city manager to step down so the council can take back some of the power?
Soule: Yes I think that the importance of the three branches of government are spelled out; the council is the legislative branch, we make the laws, the city manager is in charge of enforcing those laws and the judicial branch, the incorporated council, is in charge of making sure there constitutional.
I think that the problem with the current make up of the city manager is he’s usurping some of the powers of the council and not bringing them in a collaborative effort in the decision-making.
Sentry: So are you saying, looking ahead, the council is going to have to take back some of the power the manager is usurping?
Soule: Well, yes. If you look at my last paragraph that would be the best answer I can give you, instead of actually suggesting who the next mayor should be, I would strongly suggest the next mayor council the city manager in his decision-making process as well as making sure the rest of the council is aware of some of the major decision we were left out of in the present system.
Sentry: Do you think that is the biggest challenge the new council will be facing?
Soule: Absolutely, otherwise you might as well have an appointed mayor/city manager with no oversight city council and the council would be ceremonial only.
Sentry: Are there any other changes the council is going to have to make?
Soule: Nope.
Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson may be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233 or news@inthesentry.com.
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