AUBURN – Lewiston and Auburn governments might consider creating a central authority to manage the growing herd of joint city authorities, according a group studying municipal cooperation.
That’s one of the preliminary ideas to come out of a yearlong study of cost-cutting measures for the Twin Cities’ governments. Other ideas include joint purchasing plans and capital projects.
Councilors from both Lewiston and Auburn listened Monday night as members of the Mayors’ Commission on Joint Services presented their findings so far.
Monday’s report was light on specific changes for Twin Cities government. Details are due later in the fall, according to co-chair Donna Steckino, followed by a series of action steps.
The two cities have 10 groups that handle joint business. Those range from the Lewiston Auburn Economic Growth Council, the Cable TV Advisory Committee and the 911 Communications Center to the Lewiston Auburn Transit Committee.
Expect to see more of those groups in the future, she said.
“That leads to fragmentation over time,” Steckino said. More groups wind up doing more, less efficiently.
The answer might be for the two cities to have a central authority steer all of those groups.
“But that authority would have to have written goals and a real say in what happens,” Steckino said.
The 10-member committee began meeting in October to find ways to share services and save money. The group is using a 1996 report, “L/A Together,” as background.
It will be up to councilors to adopt any of the commission’s findings.
The commission has interviewed municipal staff and city councilors from Lewiston and Auburn, looking for ways to combine services and trim budgets. It also just finished a survey of 400 people in Lewiston and Auburn to find out if they want to combine police, fire or public works services.
Schools up next
Auburn Mayor Normand Guay said he planned to ask both councils to appoint a second commission to look specifically at the Lewiston and Auburn schools. Co-chair Robert Clifford said that’s one area of government the group did not consider.
“We would be successful commenting on back-room operations, the administrative and buying functions,” Clifford said. “But we are not qualified to make a recommendation on the rest. That’s not our area of expertise.”
Guay said he and his brother, Lewiston Mayor Lionel Guay, would ask councilors to appoint a second commission later this year to discuss joint operations between the two school systems.
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