AUBURN – City elections should be timed to match Lewiston’s, and city councilors, school committee members and the Auburn mayor should still serve two year terms according to the charter commission.
The group completed a seven-month review of the city’s founding document Thursday, deciding on the last few big issues – municipal elections, terms of office and bond issues.
Voters should get the right to ratify city debt, commissioners agreed. Councilors would refer bond issues to the voters for new buildings and land purchases more than 10 percent of the city’s current budget – about $6.1 million this year.
“I think this is one area where voters really want to be involved,” said member Ellen Peters.
Councilors would still be able to vote for debt in any amount for new vehicles and road, sewer and water system work.
The group narrowly agreed to keep terms for Auburn’s elected officials to two years. Chairman John Cleveland said he preferred making terms last four years and staggering them, with a slate of council terms ending every two years.
It would add stability to council politics, he said. He was overruled by other members, who said they favored more frequent elections.
“There’s a lot of value every couple years to have to get out and knock on a few doors to get re-elected,” said member Bob Thorpe.
But commissioners agreed that Auburn’s regular elections should come on odd-numbered years. They’ve been on even years, matching state referendums, since the early 1990s. The city did that in effort to boost voter turnout.
Commissioner Richard Trafton said more voters doesn’t mean voters are paying attention to city politics.
“I think the city does get lost among the state issues,” he said.
Commissioners began their review in January. They’ve been going over the city’s founding document page by page since then, meeting weekly to discuss changes.
Trafton said he should finish working on a preliminary draft next week. He’ll e-mail that to other members and they’ll meet one final time to discuss the changes. They’ll divide it up, each member writing a summary of a different chapter that will be included in a report to voters.
The group is schedule to present their changes to the Auburn School Committee on Aug. 3 and to the City Council on Aug. 8. A public hearing is tentatively scheduled on Aug. 11.
A final draft is due by Sept. 8. Voters will have the final decision, voting to accept the charter on Nov. 8.
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