By slim margins, Presque Isle voters elected two political newcomers, Herman Legassie and Debra Plummer, to the City Council Tuesday, ousting incumbents that had held their seats for less than a year.
Legassie received 692 votes to win a four-year council seat to beat incumbents Harold Hull (614 votes), who won his seat via special election in March, and Tim Levesque (533 votes), who was appointed to fill a vacancy on the council in August.
Plummer took 598 votes to narrowly top a field of newcomers that included Carli-Simon Cleaves (573 votes) and Craig Hemphill (561 votes).
Both Legassie and Plummer were among the eight candidates who pitched their cases to be appointed to the council alongside Levesque in August. In that secret ballot election, where each councilor listed two names, Legassie and Plummer both received two votes to Levesque’s three.
Each then entered the race to win a seat in the general election, and three months later have emerged as newly elected councilors.
Legassie, in an October candidate video, cited homelessness in the city and rising property taxes as concerns. He said he is not interested in “changing anything major at this time” and instead wants to get a feel of “what’s going on with the city council” first.
He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Plummer, in a video, said she is running to “be a voice for the people,” and mentioned high property taxes, homelessness and the “drug problem” as issues she would address if elected.
“It is both an honor and a privilege to represent the city of Presque Isle,” Plummer said Wednesday. “I do not take this responsibility lightly. Moving forward, I look forward to listening and learning from both past and present councilors — their experience and insight will help guide me to be a better councilor.”
Legassie and Plummer will be sworn in during the first city council meeting of 2026.
MSAD 1 Board of Directors
In three unopposed MSAD 1 Board of Directors races, board chair Lucy Richard, incumbent Cole Staples and newcomer Shawn Berube won seats in sections 12, 6 and 8, respectively.
