AUBURN – If you have time, John Jenkins wants some of it.

If you’re a city councilor, a legislator, a banker or a business owner, he’d like to bend your ear.

If you’re voter or an Auburn taxpayer, he’d like to hear what you have to say.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people, and I’m just getting started,” said Jenkins, Auburn’s mayor-elect.

He and the seven-member City Council begin their one-year terms on Dec. 4. That’s when the city inaugurates the new council at an evening ceremony at Central Maine Community College.

But Jenkins has already started. He’s drafting tax reform proposals, calling for a reinstated and reimagined spring clean up and meeting with as many people as he can. He has a copy of his tax reform plans in a PowerPoint presentation on his laptop.

“I’ll show it to anybody that wants to listen,” he said. “I’ll show it on the hood of their car, if they want.”

That this term only lasts for one year – a side effect of the new City Charter moving municipal elections to odd numbered years beginning in 2007 – makes the next few months especially urgent.

“The first year is usually a learning year,” Jenkins said. “You have a year to get started before you’re up for election again. We don’t have that luxury, so we’ll have to get as much going as we can and hope we’re going in the right direction.”

That makes him mindful of his campaign promises, neatly summed up by five T’s: Trash, Taxes, TIFs, Teamwork and Truth.

Trash, and specifically the city’s spring cleanup tops the list because it’s the one complaint he heard from voters most often.

“It wasn’t even on my radar screen, but they kept talking about it,” Jenkins said. “So, it became one of my top issues.”

Councilors ended the annual bulky waste collections in 2005 for a $100,000 budget savings. Jenkins said he hopes to bring it back but make it pay for itself. He’d like to see quality items, like old furniture, kept in warehouse and sold. Broken but usable items can be used for scrap, recycled or sold.

“We just can’t start doing it, regardless of the cost,” he said. “There has to be a way to pay for the outlay and that’s what we want to find.”

Spending cap

His plan for property taxes begins with a city spending limit, but depends on significant tax reform.

His spending cap would simply put a 3 percent ceiling on city spending. Unlike the Taxpayers Bill of Rights voters defeated at the polls earlier this month, councilors could vote to go beyond it in case of emergency. But it would create a line the city couldn’t cross without a good reason.

His tax reform plan hinges on changing state law to let cities tax capital gains on home sales. Property taxes would stay the same from year to year regardless of changes in real estate market. The city would only get increased property tax revenues when homes sell.

“It’s a way to keep people from getting taxed out of their homes,” he said. It would also encourage homeowners to fix up their properties. He’d make more low interest loans available for homeowners, too.

“If they fix up their house now, the city’s right there with its hand out looking for more taxes,” Jenkins said. “This way, we don’t have our hand out until the property changes hands.”

Teamwork is another challenge for Jenkins and the new council, and it’s a doozy. But he thinks he can help make the council work as a team by encouraging them, listening to them and honoring them for serving.

“This is a tough job they’re doing, and they don’t usually hear from people unless they’re getting kicked,” he said.

He hopes to work with each councilor, scheduling meetings in each ward beginning in January. He hopes to start in Ward 5, then schedule another meeting every three to four weeks, working his way around the city.

“It’s something I learned as mayor of Lewiston,” he said. He served as mayor there between 1994 and 1998 and said the meetings helped put a more familiar face on city government.

He also plans regular office hours in Auburn Hall, 8-10 a.m. three days each week.

“I want this to be completely transparent government,” he said.

He’s ready to take over.

“Nobody said it’s going to be easy, and I don’t have any illusions like that,” he said.

A martial arts champion, Jenkins said he’s used to facing tough competition. He fought as a heavyweight in several karate championships, usually against taller opponents. Spectators didn’t give him much a chance to win he said, but he usually did.

“And those bigger guys, they sure make a good sound when they hit the floor,” he said.