AUBURN — A proposed blueprint for changes in Androscoggin County government will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot, calling for more county commissioners, new rules for removing elected leaders and a full-time administrator.
County Commissioners voted 2-0 Wednesday to accept the 16-page document and to send it to voters in the form of a referendum.
An elected, nine-member Charter Commission has been working on the document for almost a year and a half, wading through a wide variety of details. They range from how long a commissioner’s term would last (four years) to where the county seat will be (it will remain in Auburn).
The new document has a recall provision that gives voters a chance to oust a commissioner. It gives the commission authority to remove a commissioner who doesn’t attend meetings, behaves poorly in the meetings or displays “moral turpitude.”
It also calls for the instant removal from office of a commissioner who moves out of his or her elected district.
Richard Gross, who led the Charter Commission, has said there was little debate over whether a full-time administrator is needed. The county’s $10 million budget demands that level of oversight and someone to coordinate the county’s departments.
Randall Greenwood, chairman of the County Commission and a member of the charter group, opposed the document over the expansion to seven county commissioners.
“In my opinion, that’s growing government at a time when government shouldn’t be growing,” he said Thursday.
Members of the Charter Commission have visited with leaders in each of the county’s 14 towns and have held several public hearings.
dhartill@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
