AUBURN – John Jenkins is convinced that his motivational skills – and his experience as a mayor in Lewiston – would make him an effective leader for Auburn.

His believes his skills as a motivational speaker, an organizer and a team builder are sorely needed.

“I have the passion and skills to lead and to build teams and create a sense of teamwork and a spirit of cooperation between groups,” Jenkins said. “This is the work I was doing long before I got into politics. I’m just doing more of what I’ve been doing all along.

“My opponents have always said, ‘Should you elect me, this is what I’ll do for the city,'” he said. “I always say, ‘Should you elect me, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.'”

In Lewiston, Jenkins served two terms as mayor from 1994 to 1998. If elected mayor of Auburn on Tuesday, he would be the first person to serve as mayor of both cities.

His first job would be to open city government up to better public scrutiny.

“When a citizen or a councilor asks me a question, I have an obligation to answer it,” he said. That doesn’t happen in Auburn now, he said.

“I guess I’ve observed how questions get repeatedly asked, but seemingly the results never come back.”

Specifically, Jenkins’ plan for Auburn involves his five Ts: TIFs, Taxes, Teamwork, Truth and Trash. He pledges to resurrect the city’s spring cleanup curbside trash collection program, for example. He also would try to attract more businesses and is already working with Massachusetts firms to bring them to Auburn.

“I would encourage the council as a team to look at the lands we already own as a city and use them as magnets,” he said. The city can develop a research or technology park to encourage high-tech companies to come.

“Not so much ‘if you build it, they will come,'” he said. “I’m trying to get them to come up even before we build it so can have some agreements on hand before we put one nail in the ground, so to speak.”

That kind of investment is important.

“These would be industries that are real career producers,” he said. We have enough jobs around here in terms of minimum wage, but I’m talking about a livable wage – where you can not only pay your living expenses, but start having savings and putting something aside.”

It’s also the best way for a city to reduce residential property taxes. He would do what he could to help control spending, as well.

“I understand this issue with (the Taxpayer Bill of Rights)” he said. He even supports a local version of it.

“That’s the sort of thing I could see putting in place in Auburn, where we’d be controlling our spending and being more accountable to the public about how we are spending our dollars.”