AUBURN – Lewiston officials should decide tonight just how much help they’ll offer Auburn’s City Council in its search for a city manager.

Auburn Mayor John Jenkins Monday formalized his council’s request for help in replacing outgoing City Manager Pat Finnigan. She announced her resignation last month, effective in June.

“We don’t want to just consider our need today, but take into account our unique opportunity to plan for the future,” Jenkins said. He hopes Auburn councilors will find a new manager that will serve the city’s best interests today, and also be a possible top administrator for both cities.

“At some point in time, we will have one manager for both cities if we keep moving down this path,” Jenkins said. “So, we should have this discussion now, rather than later on.”

Auburn councilors opened the door for sharing a top administrator with Lewiston last week, prompting Jenkins to send Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert a request on Monday. He passed that request on to Lewiston’s City Council Monday night, during a joint meeting of the two city councils.

Lewiston councilors said they wanted to discuss the matter amongst themselves. They have a budget workshop discussion scheduled tonight and City Councilor Norm Rousseau said they should take up the matter then.

The discussion capped an evening review of current joint service projects. The two city councils heard budget requests from six Twin Cities groups – L/A Arts, the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport, the Lewiston Auburn Economic Growth Council, the Lewiston Auburn Transit Committee, the L/A 911 Communication Center and the Emergency Management Agency. Together, those groups requested roughly $1.39 million from each city.

Budgets requested by the growth council and the transit committee stayed level with last year. The rest asked for increased money. L/A Arts Executive Director Andrew Harris said his group has not gotten more money from the cities in several years, but needs an additional $3,760 from the two cities while Airport Director Rick Cloutier asked for an additional $98,462. The 911 Communications Center requested an additional $167,544. The EMA group asked for an additional $420.

Councilors from both cities listened to the groups, but made no decisions Monday.

“I understand one group asking for an 8 percent increase, but what if everyone asks for more money,” Auburn Councilor Bruce Bickford said. “I don’t think I want to be the one that has to go to the taxpayer and ask for all that extra money.”