Morse

Westbrook Mayor-elect David Morse will take the oath of office with other elected and reelected officials in a ceremony next week.

Morse in the past several months has donned two hats as City Council president and acting mayor since February.

He is expected to step down as council president and as a city councilor Tuesday, Dec. 2, before he sworn in as mayor.

“It’s a bittersweet occasion for me,” Morse said on Nov. 18 at a special City Council meeting, his final as its president.

He won the mayor’s race in a ranked choice voting runoff following the election Nov. 5

Morse along with newly elected city councilors and School Committee members
will be sworn in at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2, at a special inauguration at the Performing Arts Center at Westbrook Middle School, 471 Stroudwater St.

The City Council picked Morse as its president last December and he stepped in to serve as acting mayor in February after former Mayor Michael Foley resigned to accept the position of town manager in Gray.

The City Council will select a new board president and City Clerk Angela Holmes last week outlined the process for the board to name a Ward 1 successor on the board for Morse.

A new council president on Dec. 16 will officially announce the Ward 1 vacancy and the following day nomination petition papers will be available at the City Clerk’s Office at City Hall. Any resident who has lived in Ward 1 for at least three months is eligible to seek the term that expires Dec. 1, 2025.

Interested candidates must collect 25-50 signatures from registered Ward 1 voters and return completed nominations with a letter of intent describing their interest in filling the vacant position by 4 p.m. on Dec. 31.

The City Council’s Committee of the Whole will convene at 6 p.m. on Jan. 6 to review the list of qualified candidates, their letters, and could ask candidates to speak. After that, the City Council will meet for a regular session at 7 p.m. and could name a candidate to fill the vacancy.

Morse was elected to the City Council in 2019 and ran unopposed in 2022.

For more information, contact the City Clerk’s Office at 591-8131.