Frank Ivancie | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 47thMayor of Portland, Oregon | |
| In office November 24, 1980 – January 2, 1985 | |
| Preceded by | Connie McCready |
| Succeeded by | Bud Clark |
| Portland City Commissioner | |
| In office 1967–1980 | |
| Preceded by | Ormond R. Bean |
| Succeeded by | Margaret Strachan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Francis James Ivancie (1924-07-19)July 19, 1924 Marble, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died | May 2, 2019(2019-05-02) (aged 94) California, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Profession | Politician, businessman |
Francis James Ivancie (July 19, 1924 – May 2, 2019)[1] was an American businessman and politician who served asmayor ofPortland, Oregon, from 1980 to 1985. Prior to his term as mayor, Ivancie served for fourteen years on thePortland City Council. After his retirement from elected office, Ivancie remained active in community affairs, occasionally lending his support to political causes. During his political career, Ivancie was aconservativeDemocrat.[2]
Frank Ivancie was born inMarble, Minnesota.[3]: 9 His father was an immigrant fromLjubljana,[3]Slovenia (then part ofYugoslavia).[4] He graduated from theUniversity of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in sociology.[5] He subsequently moved toOregon, where he earned a master's degree in education from theUniversity of Oregon.[3] During World War II, he served in theUnited States Army Air Forces.
After the war, Ivancie began working as a teacher inBurns, Oregon where he met his future wife Eileen O'Toole with whom he had 10 children. He moved toWashington County, in thePortland metropolitan area, to take a position asprincipal of Orenco School, inOrenco, Oregon. After a period in the 1950s working in England as principal of an American school run by theDepartment of Defense, Ivancie returned to Oregon and taught forPortland Public Schools. He left teaching in 1956 when hired as executive assistant to then-mayor-electTerry Schrunk.[5]
Ivancie was first elected to the Portland City Council in 1966, filling a vacancy on the Council whenOrmond Bean did not run for re-election to the post.[5] He took office on January 4, 1967.[5] He was re-elected to the Council several times, in 1970, 1974, and 1978, only serving the first two years of his final term.[6]
In 1976, Ivancie launched his first campaign for mayor, running against one-term incumbentNeil Goldschmidt. A key issue in the campaign was theMount Hood Freeway, a controversial freeway proposal which the City Council hadkilled by a vote of 4–1 in 1974 (Ivancie casting the lone dissenting vote) and which Ivancie and his supporters hoped to revive. Billboards were erected proclaiming "If Ivancie were mayor, you'd be home now". Unfortunately for Ivancie, the primary beneficiaries of the proposed freeway project were suburban commuters who were ineligible to vote for the mayor of Portland.[7] City residents were in widespread opposition to the freeway (which was never built), and Goldschmidt handily won re-election, defeating Ivancie in the primary election. (The Portland mayoral election is held in May of years divisible by four; if no candidate secures a majority in the primary then a run-off election is held in November between the top two vote-getters in the primary election.)[7]
In 1979, Goldschmidt resigned as the city's mayor to take a post with theCarter Administration asUnited States Secretary of Transportation, and fellow commissionerConnie McCready was appointed to fill the remainder of Goldschmidt's term. Ivancie then ran for mayor again in 1980 against McCready—a candidate who had neither the populist appeal of Goldschmidt nor the powerful backing of Ivancie—and defeated her in the primary election. The primary election that year occurred on May 20, 1980. He was sworn in as mayor on November 24, 1980.[8]
Portland's mayor typically also assumes the role of police commissioner, but Ivancie initially kept his colleagueCharles Jordan, who had been assigned to the role in 1977 by Ivancie's predecessor, in the role. Ivancie later took over the police bureau.[9] and had held it since 1977.[10]
Ivancie's tenure as mayor was scandal-free; however, his conservative politics and pro-business positions were frequently controversial in Portland, a city with strong progressive leanings. Ivancie opposed the development of the popularPioneer Courthouse Square on the grounds that the square would become a gathering place fortransients. He oversaw the construction of thePortland Building and advocated construction ofwells to back up theBull Run Watershed—the city's primary source of drinking water.[5] Much of the construction of the firstMAX Light Rail line occurred during his tenure.
In March 1984—two months prior to the election—Bud Clark trailed Ivancie by 35 points in one poll. However, the Clark campaign put together a large number of volunteers who canvassed the city. After an early May poll byThe Oregonian showed the race tied, the Ivancie campaign replied with negative advertisements questioning Clark's religious beliefs (Clark has claimed to be a "born again pagan"). The ads offended Portland voters, who elected Clark to be the next mayor on May 15, by a margin of 13 points.[11][12]
After the loss in the election, Ivancie briefly turned to national politics, heading up the Oregon branch ofDemocrats for Reagan; afterRonald Reagan's re-election, Ivancie was named to theFederal Maritime Commission. After this, he retired from politics and moved to California.[12] He stayed out of the Portland public eye until 2007, when then-mayorTom Potter proposed an amendment to the Portland city charter to convert the city from acommission form of government to astrong-mayor system. Ivancie, along with Bud Clark, lent support to those opposing the charter amendment;[13] the proposal would go down to defeat.
| Preceded by | Mayor of Portland, Oregon 1980–1985 | Succeeded by |
