WATERVILLE — Rebecca Green was reelected Tuesday night as chair of the Waterville City Council, defeating Councilor Rien Finch, who also was nominated for the leadership position.

Council Chair Rebecca Green, D-Ward 4, presides April 4, 2023, at the Waterville City Council meeting at The Elm at 21 College Ave. Morning Sentinel file

Green, D-Ward 4, was elected chair in 2022 after only a year on the council, making her the first woman to serve as chair.

Councilor Thomas Klepach, D-Ward 3, nominated Green on Tuesday, and Councilor Brandon Gilley, D-Ward 1, nominated Finch, D-Ward 6, who has served on the council for the past year.

Green said prior to the vote that it has been a privilege to serve as council chair the past three years and she believes she has set a tone of civility and stability on the panel.

“It’s been a time of considerable transition, with two mayors and three city managers over that time,” she said. “I believe that this is not the only position of leadership on the council. I think that everyone on this council can be a leader, and is showing leadership.”

Green said she believes she has the disposition, experience, open-mindedness and fairness to do the job for another year, and she would like to be replaced a year from now.

“I’m asking for your support in the light of my record and my relationship building,” she said. “I’ve worked with all councilors to make sure that their voices were heard, that they had the support they need, and I believe that that is one of the most important jobs of this role — to speak for the council as a body and to lead in that way and act in the best interest of the city.”

Rien Finch during a Waterville Charter Commission meeting Feb. 27, 2019. Morning Sentinel file

Finch said the biggest reason he decided to run for chair is that Mayor Mike Morris asked him to work with the Waterville Youth Council, which has members who alternately attend City Council meetings. Finch said that in the Youth Council application process, he learned about young people’s interests.

“A lot of these youth said that they wanted to see representation of themselves in government, and that representation being LGBTQ representation,” Finch said. “And I just firmly believe representation matters, and it’s not lost on me that I’m one of the only openly trans political leaders, not just in Maine, but across the country.”

Finch said the council chair position is largely symbolic, with only one duty assigned to it in the city charter.

“I believe everyone deserves a seat at the table,” Finch said, “and I think this is one of those opportunities that we as a council have — to elevate minority voices.”

The city, through Green’s election as the council’s first female chair, has done exactly that, Finch said. Electing Finch would be another first, not just for Waterville, but for Maine.

“I just think it’s an excellent opportunity to show not just the youth, but the greater community, that representation matters,” he said.

Finch said that during his time on the council, he has reached out to councilors, especially regarding votes important to him, and treated them like adults, including letting them run the conversation. The council, he said, is one body, but with seven individual members.

“I do differ with Councilor Green in that I don’t think that the council chair speaks for the body,” he said. “They are just one voice of the body.”

Gilley said that while the council chair essentially takes the mayor’s role if the mayor is out, he feels the chair is a position of influence and leadership, and he finds those qualities in Green and Finch. Gilley added, however, that he thinks Finch deserves the opportunity to be chair.

Klepach said he did not disagree with anything Gilley said. He added that he has known Green a long time and appreciates her poise, diplomacy, demeanor and ability to keep a collegial, smooth-running, diplomatic and productive tone with issues that sometimes involve sharply differing opinions.

“I do not disagree that representation matters,” Klepach said. “I wholeheartedly agree with that, and I’m very proud to serve on a council with Councilor Finch, and my support for Councilor Green is not intended in any way to not show support for the role that you play on this council.”

Councilor Flavia DeBrito, D-Ward, 2, said she was torn when deciding for whom to vote, because Green or Finch would do well as council chair. DeBrito, Klepach, Green and new Councilor Cathy Herard, D-Ward 7, who was sworn in earlier Tuesday night, voted for Green, while Gilley and Finch voted to Finch.

The Ward 5 seat remains vacant after Councilor Ken Gagnon’s resignation last month.

Green was chair of the Waterville Housing Committee. She holds a doctorate in musicology from University of Toronto and is a former teacher, freelance writer and editor, who has also worked in arts administration and was head of school at the Kennebec Montessori School in Fairfield from 2006 to 2018.

A data analyst, Finch is a former member of the Waterville Charter Commission and heavily involved in the Democratic Party.