James Cloutier was selected Maine County Commissioner of August in honor of his community service by Spirit of America Foundation’s Maine Chapter. Cloutier has served 16 years as a commissioner of Cumberland County, including three years as its chair.
Before then he was a member of Portland’s City Council for 10 years, including one term as mayor. Cloutier was a member and chair of the Waterfront Redevelopment Task Force, the Bayside Task Force, chaired the council’s Community Development Committee for several years and was a chair or member of the Finance Committee for nine years.
Cloutier served as a Portland representative to the PACTS Policy Committee, the regional transportation authority for several years, two years as chair of Greater Portland Council Of Governments, and two years as chair of the regional trash/recycling concern (now known as ecoMaine).
He also served seven years on the Maine Turnpike Authority (including time as vice chair), multiple years on the board of Wayside Soup Kitchen (now called Wayside Food Program) and over 20 years as a board member and officer of cPort Credit Union. Cloutier was appointed by Gov. Brennan as chair of the Certificate of Need Advisory Committee and served two terms in the 1980s.
Cloutier was a member and participant on many other groups over the years. One of his favorites was as a member of the Casco Bay Estuary Project Board during the years when the dam removal at the mouth of the Presumpscot River was sought and ultimately achieved, revitalizing a large and vital local ecosystem.
“Among my best personal moments was when STRIVE recognized our family as the Volunteers of the Year a couple of years ago,” he said. “I never tried to keep track of the many meetings and functions in which I participated, but once calculated that I had chaired over 1,000 public meetings or hearings.”
Maine Spirit of America is a chapter of Spirit of America Foundation, an organization promoting community service.
