LEWISTON – Voters will decide next month if the city should dispense with a personnel board to handle police and fire testing and hiring.

It’s an expensive redundancy, according to Human Resources Director Denis Jean. It costs $8,000, and most of its functions are handled now by the state.

“All of the board’s duties can be very easily transferred to the human resources department,” Jean said.

The board is required by the city charter, however, and the city needs voter approval to get rid of it.

“It’s a redundancy that we took out of the budget, and this is to follow up with it,” Jean said. “We need to change the charter to make it happen.”

The Personnel Board was created to keep politics out of hiring and make sure police and fire crews met certain standards. The board, made up of three people, meets each spring to test applicants for police and fire department jobs.

State law has its own tough standards for police officers. The personnel board is an unnecessary step that costs the city money.

The city’s human resources department handles most of the other functions that used to fall to the board. The testing can be handled by the Maine Criminal Justice Academy for less than what it costs to keep the board running.

The Personnel Board is part of the City Charter, and the City Council can not eliminate it. The city must put any charter change before the voters for approval.