Mayoral poll: What will you do to attract new companies here?

We asked Portland's mayoral candidates:

What will you do to attract new companies here?

The responses we received by our deadline follow. They have been edited for clarity.

Michael Brennan: Similar to the state and national economy, Portland's growth and economic activity have declined in the recent years. While Portland's unemployment rate remains relatively low compared to state and national averages, it is almost double what it was in earlier parts of the decade. This is largely due to the fact that almost 40% of Portland residents between the age of 45 and 65 have undergraduate degrees. Yet, many people in Portland face underemployment because Portland offers a high quality of life, but not always a commensurate income level. In fact, in recent years, Portland's economic growth has been confined to government, education and health care.

Every indicator shows that over the next several years, the growth in government and education will stagnate or decline. That is why Portland needs to adopt a growth strategy that builds on local job development and also fosters growth in areas such as biotech, bio-plastics, life sciences, legal services and finance. Compared to similar communities, Portland has lagged in job growth and in income growth over the last several years. Consequently, we need to focus on high-growth areas and high-income producing jobs.

Peter Bryant: Make a list of companies we want. Target the CEO, or decision maker. Make contact with them. Explain what Portland has, what makes business sense.

A) Do your homework on these people and their companies
B) Open door policy = If you're in Maine, stop in! Make this a business looking for business.

Ralph Carmona: I will work with the city manager, councilors and key constituents, like the business community, to focus on how Portland's economic development strategy plan connects with the overall plan for the city. Obviously, this will involve working with those involved to secure accomplished goals and priorities. I will act, where needed, as the face of the plan in regards to attracting new companies to grow our tax and job base, supporting business and enhancing the creative assets of our Portland economy.

Many of the pieces in the plan will require business involvement in marketing it to increase outside business. It will require thoughtful educators, citizens and leaders from the business community as ambassadors, working to recruit key businesses that will give substance to the plan. All these are detailed in the city's plan itself. Using my networking and marketing skills, in concert with our business and civic sectors, I will seek ways to respond to an unprecedented immigrant diversity and density. This, along with major environmental and technology changes, will result in a transformation of the urban world. In Maine, Portland will be at the epicenter of that change.

Technology can be applied in Portland to decrease congestion, enhance parking and energy use. With certain structural changes, providing subscriptions for more efficient and increased service can replace use of bonds and property tax increases. With intellectual and a real world business understanding, this mayor will work with key Portland leaders and lock into this migration shift in a timely fashion.

Jill Duson: To the position of Portland mayor, I will bring the skills of a technocrat who has led a complex statewide bureau with a $24 million budget, a staff of 150 and 11 service points across Maine. In that position, I and my leadership team successfully reengineered the fiscal management process of the bureau to eliminate a 10% budget deficit.

To the position of Portland mayor, I will bring a rock solid commitment to service accountability and quality results in government service. As bureau director, I led a complete redesign of the case management process, improved performance standards and eliminated an 11-month waiting list for services.

To attract new companies to Portland, I will focus on making certain that current Portland business owners are successful. Leaders who are successfully running and growing business in the greater Portland region have the potential to be the best ambassadors for attracting new business to the region. As mayor of Maine's "big city," I will work closely with business attraction efforts at the local, regional and state level. And, I will build upon connections formed when I twice served as appointed mayor to promote greater Portland in multi-state and national forums.

John Eder: In order to attract new business here we need to create the conditions. The Census tells us that hundreds of thousands of people are coming to Maine over the next 20-30 years. These new residents will most likely want to locate to the Portland area to be close to job opportunities and services. We need to plan for this growth in order to maintain our high quality of life, keep Portland livable and intimate and keep southern Maine bucolic and beautiful.

I want to site these new residents downtown for sustainable living so that greater Portland does not sprawl out and connect with the D.C./New York/ Boston megalopolis and kill another one of our major assets -- our natural beauty and close proximity to undisturbed open spaces and farms. We must maintain those unique qualities so that CEOs will want to live here. We need to prepare now to house the work force in town so that those companies will have an ample pool of workers nearby who can walk and use public transportation, a more robust METRO and light rail to get to work.

Hamza Haadoow: First, I will support growth of our local entrepreneurs; besides that, it is important to get outside companies. Companies want a business-friendly city with skilled workers and I will accommodate that. Also true to the city council, I will propose tax breaks for new businesses that want to move [here].

Jodie Lapchick: Portland needs a better funding source for targeting specific industries, attending industry trade shows, social media, relationship-building and marketing directly to businesses in growth industries. For instance, science and engineering industries are growing in New England but not here in Maine. It should not be a huge stretch to attract some of that business to Portland.

If I am elected mayor, I will fight for a local-option hotel sales tax to be used on overall brand development, tourism marketing and economic development marketing. Gov. LePage has expressed at least an open mind about such a tax, so now may be the best time to make it happen.

David Marshall: As mayor, I will attract new companies to Portland by increasing the housing stock, promoting business assistance programs, and working with public and private partners to expand trade.

Increasing our housing stock near the downtown and in our business corridors will help attract businesses to Portland by offering housing possibilities for employees. By growing with dense urban mixed-use development, commercial spaces will increase with sufficient population nearby. To encourage urban housing development, I would work to change the land use codes in business zones and offer incentives through public programs and tax increment financing.

Economic indicators from the scorecard recently published by the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce show that Portland is lagging behind in innovation jobs when compared to similar benchmark cities. To attract more innovation jobs in science and engineering, I would encourage a creative cluster in the low-impact industrial zones by promoting city of Portland's business assistance programs, and Community Development Block Grants. To allow for the construction of facilities designed for science and technology jobs, I would update the land use code in these zones.

To increase our imports and exports, I would work with the state of Maine to expand the cargo operation at the International Marine Terminal. Also, I would work with Pan Am Railways to improve the freight lines and expand the opportunities for trade. Investing in reconstructing the sea wall along the western waterfront will ensure long-term viability of the IMT and expand economic development.

Nick Mavodones: Making it easier to create jobs will go a long way toward bringing new companies here to Portland. But we also need a mayor who can be an ambassador for the city. In recent months we have appeared at the top of national rankings by AARP, Forbes, Outdoors Magazine and Travel and Leisure. The secret is out, and as mayor I will make sure that anyone looking to relocate a business knows about the unparalleled quality of life that Portland, Maine, has to offer.
For instance, there are some investments we can make that will also attract new companies. Portland needs to explore the development of executive-level housing. If we are going to lure CEOs from other metropolitan areas, we need to offer the accommodations found in larger cities. This is an important part of how we compete on a global level.

Markos Miller: To attract companies that offer good-paying jobs and solid benefits, Portland needs to cultivate a well-educated, innovative work force. If we have the talent and the skills in our local work force, more companies will be enticed to set up shop here. Although Portland has more people who have graduated college than the national average, between 2000 and 2005 the percentage of people in Portland who have a bachelor's degree fell by almost 5%, meaning we lost skilled, valuable workers. If Portland is going to be the city we want it to be, we need more college-educated workers helping drive the economy.

My proposal to jumpstart the plan to redevelop Bayside into an affordable, attractive, mixed-use urban community will, in the short-term, help attract the educated workers Portland needs to compete in the economy of the 21st century. In the long-term, however, there is no better educational investment than preschool. Preschool-educated children are more likely to graduate high school and go on to college. They learn basic interaction skills, which are infinitely harder to develop later in life and without which can stunt growth and long-term development. For every public dollar spent on providing citywide preschool, the return can be as high as 300%. The Bayside proposal will bring college-educated workers to Portland in the short-term, while the solid foundation of city-wide preschool will help strengthen and prepare the next generation of Portlanders to go on to college.

Jed Rathband: The best way to attract companies to Portland is to first grow and retain our own. This leadership will signal to the world that Portland knows how to take care of business. Until we can prove that, Portland will always be inherently disadvantaged despite our unsurpassed work force, the best in northern New England, our excellent shipping ports (air, sea and over land), and our superior, yet affordable, quality of life.

Portland needs to quit thinking about landing a Boeing, a Genentech or an Intel and, instead, begin concentrating on growing one here from scratch. We have the human resources and expertise to make this happen. We already see some great examples like Tilson Technologies, PowerPay and CashStar rising up to become national and international leaders in their fields. As mayor, I will tout their successes and those of other companies to demonstrate that Portland has the professional ability and government agencies needed to build and foster successful business.

In addition, there are changes occurring globally that could benefit Portland and the region. We are well-positioned to continue attracting professional services such as those in the design, legal and financial sectors due to the repatriation of companies doing business abroad. Many companies have discovered that it's in fact cheaper to perform many services at home rather than off-shoring them to places with less rigorous quality controls. With our hourly rates below those of many other cities, we are poised to capture this trend as it moves back home.

Ethan Strimling: My initial focus will be on assisting our existing businesses to grow and thrive. We have too many businesses here today that want to invest, expand and build on their success, but city hall has not made that as easy as it should be.
In terms of attracting new business, first and foremost, we need to change the culture of city hall as described in [my response to] Question 2. We must also clean up the city's downtown and make it more attractive with lighting, benches, graffiti abatement and aesthetic improvements to attract more customers.

The city of Portland must also be clearer in our policies around the homeless sleeping in our parks and on doorsteps. We can no longer tolerate sleeping in parks or begging for money as effective poverty programs. These activities do nothing to fix the problem. We must engage this population in a way that moves them off the street and into jobs and economic stability.

Additionally, I would institute a "hotline" at city hall to deal with roadblocks, invest in our infrastructure so that businesses have a functional city in which to operate and improve our high-speed Internet access. Finally, we must build a first-rate school system so that we can attract new families to Portland and also build a skilled work force to help local businesses grow.

Chris Vail: As I have stated, we need to start local. I will be the face on every meet-and-greet I can schedule with potential partners in business and development. I want our partners to know we can work together to build successful growth in Portland. I think that is how the relationship should be approached as a partnership. We have one of the most beautiful coastal cities in our country, really well-educated citizens and need to promote a welcome invitation to new companies. As local business blossoms, so does our tax base, our quality of life and our population of well-educated, well-compensated workers.

We need to start our process by looking at ourselves and learning as a city what we have done well and not so well with business and development in the past. Constructive criticism is not always fun but it can be a priceless learning tool if used progressively and correctly. This is one of my favorite notions from the new elected mayor's position -- full time! I will be the face and voice on the scene and doorstep of every potential business and development prospective partner. I will be the bridge to unite responsible potential business and development with all of the resources, incentives and opportunity Portland has to offer.

Read responses to Question 1: What is Portland's greatest economic asset and what do you intend to do with it?

Read responses to Question 2: In what areas can Portland be strengthened to benefit businesses?