LEWISTON – Saying they’re going to need some staff support, members of a 10-member committee looking to combine some Twin City services began their work.

Twin City mayors Normand Guay of Auburn and Lionel Guay of Lewiston met with their commission on joint cooperation for the first time Friday afternoon. And then, after telling the group what they wanted, the left the room to let the group get started.

“It’s your project now,” said Auburn’s Normand Guay.

The group will meet again Tuesday morning.

The group has nine months to review services in each city and to issue a plan to combine some of them. Sharing could range from buying office supplies jointly to combining police or fire departments. They’ll use a 1996 report, “L/A Together,” as background.

The members are: Maine Supreme Judicial Court Judge Robert Clifford, a member of the original L/A Together commission; Community Credit Union CEO Donna Steckino; Linda Hertell of Richardson Hollow Associates; Maine Community Policing Institute Associate Director Larry Gilbert; former Auburn police Officer Jeff Harmon; attorneys George Hess and Ronald Bissonette; certified public accountant Mark Carrier; John Emerson of Emerson Chevrolet; and K.C. Geiger, formerly of Geiger.

It will be up to councilors to adopt the commission’s findings, Normand Guay said.

“This is something we want our city councils to look at, and not brush off,” Guay said. “This isn’t another study we want to just end up on some shelf.”

Members agreed the two mayors were asking for a lot, and they’d need some staff support.

“We have 10 very busy people,” said co-chair Bob Clifford. “We need someone to coordinate the information we ask for, and our meeting dates.”