LEWISTON — Don’t expect Lewiston to follow Auburn’s lead if Auburn councilors forbid city staff from helping members of the Lewiston-Auburn Charter Commission, according to Mayor Bob Macdonald.
Macdonald said it makes sense to prepare the best information possible before voting on something like combining the two cities.
“If this ever happens, if it ever gets implemented, we’d need the tools and the information to make contracts and make good decisions,” Macdonald said Friday.
Auburn city councilors are scheduled to vote Monday on a resolution to stop city staff members from working with the Lewiston Auburn Charter Commission.
Members of the commission had asked Macdonald and Auburn Mayor Jonathan LaBonte to recommend people who could serve on four working committees, including residents, city councilors and city staff.
The commission has released a draft charter that would combine the two cities. Now they are working to create a draft report showing how the combined cities could operate and what kind of savings and efficiencies, if any, residents could expect to see.
The charter has identified four committee groups: one to study public safety, another to study education, a third to study public works and utilities and a fourth to study general city operations and administration. These committees would be made up of residents and city councilors, but Lewiston and Auburn employees would be included as experts in their particular departments.
At least four Auburn councilors have joined a group opposed to the charter effort. They said Thursday they don’t support the Charter Commission’s goals and don’t want to burden staff with more work.
Lewiston City Councilor Shane Bouchard, also a member of that anti-charter group, said he’d support a similar rule for Lewiston staff but doubted his colleagues would.
“I wish we would, but I’m realistic to know that it would not pass,” Bouchard said. “I’d support it 100 percent. I’d like to kill this whole stupid thing.”
Bouchard said he would not serve on any of the committees.
“As a city councilor, I like serving on boards and committees,” Bouchard said. “I serve on many of them already, but on boards and committees where I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. All I see with the end of this is the voters knocking it down.”
Lewiston Councilor Tim Lajoie said he would not sit on a charter committee, either.
“If I have to sit, as a city councilor, and vote on some of the conclusions they make, that would not be appropriate,” Lajoie said. “I would not sit on any committee where I have to vote on the validity of its findings.”
Lajoie said city staff should not work on charter business while on the city’s clock.
“But if you want to go a step beyond and tell a municipal secretary or a police officer that they can’t sit on this commission on their own time and give input, that would be overstepping on our part,” Lajoie said.
Macdonald said the commission groups at least must be able to talk with members of the two cities’ labor unions.
“If they are spending so much time on this, we need to be able to go to the unions and ask them what is acceptable and what is not,” Macdonald said. “Then they can come to a consensus.”
“As a city councilor, I like serving on boards and committees. I serve on many of them already, but on boards and committees where I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. All I see with the end of this is the voters knocking it down.”
— Shane Bouchard, Lewiston city councilor
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