Biographical information

Name:

Doris Russell

Office Sought:

Auburn City Council, Ward 4

Home Street Address:

20 Elm St.

Campaign Phone Number:

783-9447

Campaign Email Address:

dorruss66@aol.com

Facebook page:

Twitter Account:

YouTube Channel:

Occupation or primary source of income:

I was a State of Maine employee. My Income is from Maine State retirement.

Education:

I have a BA degree in psychology from the University of Maine, Orono. I graduated from Lewiston High School prior to going to college.

Family:

I am married to Ron Russell. We have one adult daughter who also lives locally. They are my immediate family. I have many cousins in Lewiston and Auburn as well as friends. Many of the friends that I socialize with live in the Augusta area and I am an honorary cousin to friends in the Portland area.

Public offices sought or held?

I’ve never sought public office before. My experience so far is from canvassing parts of my ward to gather signatures for the nomination petition to run for city council and seeking advice from office holders. I met a fair number of people that I had never had an opportunity to meet before now. I was surprised by how many people were not registered voters.

Civic organizations:

I am a member of the Woman’s Literary Union here in Auburn. The running joke is that I don’t have very far to go to attend the meetings (I live across the street). I am a board member for a relatively new organization, Grow L&A. We are volunteers who work to preserve the existing assets in the two cities and to bring resources to the twin cities. I also participate in a book club at the Lewiston Public Library. We meet monthly to discuss and give our impressions on a different book at each meeting.

Ice breakers

What is your favorite food?

I like to cook mainly because I like to try a lot of different food. Consequently, I have too many favorites, but pizza is first among almost equals.

What is your favorite movie?

I don’t watch many movies, but over the years I did come to think of two as my favorites-“To Kill A Mocking Bird” and “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”

What is your favorite book?

I like to read and I’ve enjoyed many books but I think that the book that impressed me the most was “A Tale Of Two Cities” even though it’s been a long time since I’ve read it.

What is the best political advice you have received?

The best advice I got was: meet as many people as possible in my ward and ask them to vote for me. Makes sense to me.

What Maine political figure do you admire most?

Since this question was not limited to a particular era, I am reaching back to say that would be Ed Muskie for his environmental legislation.

Local politics

What has Mayor Jonathan LaBonte done during the past two years that you agree with? What has he done that you disagree with?

I am supportive of the mayor’s work on promoting the river and how much of an asset it is to the city and for his work to bring more transportation to the area.

What has the city council done during the past two years that you agree with? What have they done that you disagree with?

I am not sure if I support or oppose the city’s involvement in the ice arena. I do think it’s controversial. If it makes money for the city, that’s great. If it loses money and taxpayers are on the hook for it, it seems priorities are misplaced since the high school is in such sad shape. I don’t think there was enough study and consideration of the possible outcome for the arena.

What has the city manager and the city staff done during the past two years that you agree with? What have they done that you disagree with?

I’m not sure where the main responsibility is for the work that eliminated and resurrected recycling. Perhaps it was both the administration and the council. It seems that it has been a slow growing process to get citizens on board to recycle. To eliminate recycling for one year and then negotiate to start it up again didn’t seem to be a good plan. It’s bad enough that the recycling schedule is every other week on your garbage collection day except on those months when you have five garbage collection days in the month.

What has the school committee done during the past two years that you agree with? What have they done that you disagree with?

I really didn’t follow the work of the school committee until the high school building was the main issue. I don’t think it was productive for the school committee to keep working on a new high school building despite any visible means of support from the State for new schools for years, and other reduced funds from the State for cities and towns. That seemed to leave only taxpayers to pick up the tab.

What is your solution for Auburn’s high school?

From what I’ve read, I agree that there’s a real need for a solution for the high school but I don’t know what it is unless there’s a community wide effort to secure funds from other than the traditional sources.

Any last words?

I have many years of various administrative experience. I have been a social worker, a supervisor of a research evaluation and planning unit for social services, an operations manager and a comprehensive health planner. I am proud to be living in Auburn. My neighborhood in the downtown has been steadily but slowly improving.

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