Erica Sheehan: Candidate for City Council Profile

Erica Sheehan has never held or run for political office. She states that she is seeking a seat on the Portland City Council because “I love this city and I love the family friendliness of this town and would like to help it continue down that path if I am elected to the Council. I don’t really have an agenda. I have not always lived here, but I have relationships with different people in the community and people feel comfortable communicating with me. I have attended multiple City Council meetings because I like to know what is going on.”

What I like most about Portland

“The idea of Portland Strong, the family friendliness, the River Trail, lots of places to eat out. We moved here without knowing anyone nine years ago and we just helped my parents here from Rochester”.

Governance

“The Council and Tutt Gorman, the City Manager, work well together. The City Manager needs to provide the Council with options about the various issues”.

View on Civility and Solving Disagreements

“If disagreements are between Council members, they need to talk about it and talk things through. If a resident has an issue, then they should come to Council meetings and share them.”

Public Safety

“Coming from a large city I am always concerned about public safety. Generally, I feel pretty safe in Portland. My two older children can walk to school and around town. That feels good.”

Maintaining and Improving City Infrastructure

“Our streets are well taken care of. The City is looking to the future though and has a multi-year plan. Fiber Internet may be coming. We need to be focused on how infrastructure affects businesses.”

1% City Income Tax

“I love the city services. Our streets are well taken care of. Parks and Recreation has good programs for kids, and I’d like to see that continue. I will continue to support the City income tax.”

Economic Development

“I love working with Tina ConnorWellman and the events downtown. I work at the events that are held and would like to see them get larger. It’s great to see attitude of Portland as a destination.”

Most Pressing Issues Facing Portland in next 3 to 5 years

Maintaining what we have without getting too big-- keeping it a small community.

Personal and Professional Background

Sheehan grew up in Rochester and attended Oakland Community College. She has been a stay at home mom for the past 14 years. She has three children ages 13, 11 and 5 who attend Portland Public Schools. Sheehan moved to Portland nine years ago for her husband’s job. Her husband John is a full-time Sergeant in the Michigan National Guard stationed in the Lansing area and has been deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan. Erica is very involved with Scouts in the Portland Area and Epic Church. She has also been involved with Courageous Coffee that will open soon on the corner of Bridge and Maple Street in Downtown Portland. Sheehan will operate Bee Love Baked Goods that will operate at the Courageous Coffee location.

This profile was written by Robert Lathers, Beacon Contributing Writer. It is the third of four profiles of 2019 Portland City Council candidates.