Portland District 4 and 5 City Council candidates discuss housing, public safety and more
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PORTLAND — Candidates and community members gathered at The Light Church on Brentwood Street for back-to-back forums Wednesday night so constituents could get to know who is running to represent them on the Portland City Council this November.
Running for the District 4 seat, which represents East Deering and parts of the Back Cove, Deering Center and North Deering neighborhoods, are incumbent Anna Bullett and challenger Jacob Viola.
The race for the District 5 seat, which includes Riverton and portions of North Deering, is a bit more crowded: Michael Todd Chretien, Jakobi Delgado, Kevin Gardella and Ilma López are looking to replace Councilor Kate Sykes, who did not seek reelection.
The Deering Center Neighborhood Association hosted the consecutive debate-style forums and posed a wide range of questions, but housing and public safety were among the most extensively covered issues Wednesday night.
DISTRICT 4
One of the first questions posed to candidates in both of Wednesday evening’s forums was how they would work to address the housing crisis.
In the District 4 debate, Bullett leaned heavily into her experience on the council to date and the work she hopes to build on. That includes the city’s work with a Social Housing Task Force and working with the permitting and inspections office on a performance improvement plan.
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Viola said he believes the city is “under-building” and “over-regulating” and, along the same vein as Bullett, said he wants to bring people together across departments to figure out a better process. He noted it’s simply too expensive to build in the city for many developers.
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When asked for their stance, both candidates said they’d support changing the city’s inclusionary zoning policies, which require large developments to have at least 25% of their housing units be affordable.
The candidates were also asked how they would address the police department’s recruiting challenges.
Bullett said part of the department’s staffing struggle is that recruits need to wait and enroll in one of the state’s training academy sessions, which can be months apart. She said she would like to see the city find a way to have the department do its own training, which could speed up the onboarding process.
Viola said the city needs to find a way to hire more officers, and that social workers could be brought on to help ease the inundation of calls related to drug use and mental health. He said he’s heard from many residents who want more enforcement, but the department doesn’t have the resources.
When asked how they’d address recent pedestrian fatalities and biking safety concerns, both candidates leaned into the city’s Vision Zero plan. They both noted the work done so far on speed tables and other crash-mitigation infrastructure, and that more are needed.
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Viola added that he’s spoken with traffic engineers on the campaign trail who have advised him that “novelty” along roads — such as flashing lights and rearranging signage — can have a slowing effect on drivers.
Bullett said she’d like to see a better pedestrian and biking “after-crash protocol” for the council, which she said right now doesn’t go far beyond councilors being notified by police of incidents.
DISTRICT 5
On how they’d address the housing crisis, the four candidates for District 5 showed a lot of overlap, such as wanting to improve the city’s permitting process and changing its inclusionary zoning policies. However, they did find chances to differentiate themselves.
Chretien highlighted his goal of building 5,000 units in the next five years, while also appointing a city “housing czar.” While also mentioned by others, Delgado leaned heavily into existing policies that pose challenges for smaller developers.
López said the city needs to work to “define” what affordable housing really means, noting some people she’s spoken to on the campaign trail say they can’t afford their “affordable” unit. Gardella emphasized that the city needs to do a better job of including nearby residents when large housing projects are proposed.
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Chretien, López and Gardella all said they support the current rent control ordinance, with some tweaking to accommodate smaller landlords. Delgado was a bit more hesitant, saying he supports it in the short term, but that it’s “a band-aid” for a bigger problem: a lack of housing supply.
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All candidates agreed it will take a multi-pronged approach to tackle public drug use, mental health, and other issues often associated with homelessness.
Gardella noted “trained medical experts” or “street doctors” could take some of the brunt off public safety personnel. Delgado was adamant that the county must reopen treatment facilities, and he would work with the county to do so.
López and Chretien both emphasized the need for institutions to work more collaboratively on the issue. López said the city needs more “in between” services and Chretien said it needs more “wraparound” services.
The candidates were split on expanding the police department, despite staffing level concerns.
Delgado and Gardella said the department needs to hire more constables. Gardella added that he’d like to expand mobile healthcare programming, while Delgado said law enforcement needs more services for their own mental health.
López said the police department may not need to hire more personnel if other sectors of the city can do more to help curb issues stemming from homelessness. Chretien said the department is an appropriate size for the city, and while hiring more officers isn’t realistic, looking at how the department can “reallocate” its current staff is.
The District 4 and 5 candidates also touched on a variety of other topics at the forum, including taxes, climate change, communication with constituents and some issues specific to Deering Center.
Members of the Deering Center Neighborhood Association say they plan to share footage of the forums ahead of Election Day. For more information and updates from the association, visit deeringcenter.me.
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Tagged: election 2026
Drew is the night reporter for the Portland Press Herald. He previously covered South Portland, Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth for the Sentry, Leader and Southern Forecaster. Though he is from Massachusetts,. More by Drew Johnson
