By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Familiar faces will fill two open jobs in Auburn’s city administration, according to City Manager Pat Finnigan.

Laurie Smith, longtime community relations manager, is being promoted to assistant city manager. She replaces Mark Adams, who resigned that job in July.

Smith had been acting finance director since February 2004 when Jill Eastman resigned that job. Finnigan found a full-time replacement for the finance job in March, hiring former Finance Authority of Maine Finance Director Ron Farris.

“Laurie really was the top candidate for that job all along, but she had her hands full with filling the finance director job,” Finnigan said. “I wasn’t going to lump another job on top of that.”

City councilors are expected to ratify Smith’s job at tonight’s City Council meeting.

Smith has been with Auburn since 1999. Before that, she was town manager in Boothbay Harbor and Oxford.

Finnigan said she has also promoted David Galbraith to director of planning and permitting. He replaces Lee Jay Feldman, who resigned in October to take a job in the private sector.

Galbraith has been with the city since 1999. Before that, he was the senior planner at the city of Schaumburg, Ill., a Chicago suburb with 130,000 residents.

Finnigan said the next step will be finding someone to replace Galbraith in his former job of senior planner.