BIOGRAPHY

Mayor Eric Spear began his fifth year as a member of the Portsmouth City Council, and his first two-year term as mayor, in January 2012.

The Mayor began his city involvement in 2004 by advocating for a fresh approach to recruitment and turnover to the City's boards and commissions. Later, he formed a grassroots organization to promote the renovation of the Portsmouth Middle School.

Following those efforts, he was encouraged to run and serve on the City Council. He was elected in November 2007 to serve his first two-year term beginning in January 2008. He was re-elected in November 2009 to a second term and was elected Mayor in November 2011.

Mayor Spear has served as the City Council's representative to the Historic District Commission (2008-2009); Taxi Commission (2008-2009); Planning Board (2010-2011); and has been a member of the Council's Legislative Subcommittee since January 2010. In January 2007, he was named as chair of the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Committee on Boards and Commissions and currently serves as a member of the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Committee on Transportation Policy.

In addition, as a City Councilor and member of the City's Committee on Sustainable Practices, he represented the City of Portsmouth at the first European Green Capital Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, in October 2010 as part of a completely grant-funded delegation of U.S. municipal elected officials invited to share urban sustainability practices. Portsmouth was the first East Coast community to formally become an eco-municipality in committing to adopt and implement a set of sustainability principles also embraced by the Swedish eco-municipality movement.

The Mayor resides in the South End with his wife and three young daughters.

 

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