By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – After four months, Step 1 of a money-saving plan to combine services in Lewiston and Auburn has yet to be taken.

The effort got off to a difficult start in February, the night the Mayors’ Commission on Joint Services issued a report urging better municipal cooperation.

Pushed by a contingent of Auburn city councilors, the cities agreed to ask the state for a grant to pay for a “cooperation coordinator” to guide government staffs in finding new ways to cooperate.

Lewiston City Administrator Jim Bennett urged his City Council to wait, saying he wanted to present the report to his staff and convince them their jobs were not on the line.

But Auburn councilors said their vote was needed to make sure state money didn’t disappear. Auburn City Manager Pat Finnigan said her staff would write a grant request, even though they were in the midst of their 2007 budget preparations.

To date, no grant application has been written.

But the cities have had plenty on their plates in the months since they got the report, said Justice Robert Clifford, co-chairman of the joint services commission.

“Both cities were pretty involved with just keeping themselves going,” Clifford said last week. Both had to review and adopt municipal budgets, as well as manage new property revaluations.

Commission Co-Chairwoman Donna Steckino also did not fault the cities for not moving forward.

“I think the success so far has been about raising awareness,” she said. “It would be nice to have the (grant) money in hand, but there is still plenty happening. The issue is still right at the top of everyone’s agenda.”

City managers hope to bring their city councils together sometime in July to talk about establishing a citizen committee to look for ways the two governments can combine services. They would also discuss hiring a liaison for the two cities, Bennett said.

The commission recommended several phases of cooperative effort, beginning with matching building and fire codes and computer systems within a year.

Within three years, the commission recommended combining many office functions such as accounting, human resources and tax assessing. The so-called “bread and butter services” of police, fire and public works could be combined over the next five years or more, if both cities agreed.