Frank Ivancie

Francis James Ivancie (July 19, 1924 – May 2, 2019) was an American businessman and politician who served as mayor of Portland, Oregon, from 1980 to 1985. Prior to his term as mayor, Ivancie served for fourteen years on the Portland 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 a conservative Democrat.

Education and career before politics Frank Ivancie was born in Marble, Minnesota. His father was an immigrant from Ljubljana, He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor's degree in sociology. He subsequently moved to Oregon, where he earned a master's degree in education from the University of Oregon.

In 1976, Ivancie launched his first campaign for mayor, running against one-term incumbent Neil Goldschmidt. A key issue in the campaign was the Mount Hood Freeway, a controversial freeway proposal which the City Council had killed 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. 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.)

Portland's mayor typically also assumes the role of police commissioner, but Ivancie initially kept his colleague Charles Jordan, who had been assigned to the role in 1977 by Ivancie's predecessor, in the role. Ivancie later took over the police bureau. and had held it since 1977.

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 popular Pioneer Courthouse Square on the grounds that the square would become a gathering place for transients. He oversaw the construction of the Portland Building and advocated construction of wells to back up the Bull Run Watershed—the city's primary source of drinking water.

Post-1984 political career After the loss in the election, Ivancie briefly turned to national politics, heading up the Oregon branch of Democrats for Reagan; after Ronald Reagan's re-election, Ivancie was named to the Federal Maritime Commission. After this, he retired from politics and moved to California. the proposal would go down to defeat.