AUBURN – Councilors opened the door for sharing a top administrator and a November vote to see if Twin Cities residents favor combining Lewiston and Auburn.

“We need to go to the citizens and see if they support consolidation,” Councilor Ellen Peters said Monday night. “If they do, then we can really move.”

Councilors asked Mayor John Jenkins to work with the Lewiston City Council, Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert and the Citizens Commission on Lewiston-Auburn Cooperation to explore hiring one manager for both cities and put further consolidation efforts to an advisory vote.

“It lets us go out and ask those questions and see what is feasible and in the best interest for the people of Auburn,” Jenkins said.

City Manager Pat Finnigan announced last month that she was resigning as of June. That prompted Lewiston Councilor Renee Bernier to offer to share Lewiston’s top administrator, Jim Bennett.

Both city councils are scheduled to meet March 26 in Auburn Hall.

Peters said Monday that the Auburn councilors were not endorsing the idea of hiring one top administrator for both cities, but saying it was worth talking about.

“We’re absolutely in support of exploring the idea, and doing it – if it’s in the best interest of Auburn,” she said. “The best way to find out is to put this group on it.”

The Citizens Commission on Lewiston-Auburn Cooperation began meeting last month and announced on March 9 that they’d hired former Rumford Town Manager Stephen Eldridge as their coordinator. That group was created to study municipal services in both cities and look for cost saving, efficient ways to combine them.