Androscoggin County Budget Committee

Mike Bowie, Lisbon

Normand Laplante, Sabattus

Phillippe Moreau, Greene

Daniel Blanchard, Mechanic Falls

James Bennett, Lewiston

Peter Grenier, Lewiston

Michael Marcotte, Lewiston

Rep. Mark Samson, legislative appointee

Rep. Lois Snow-Mello, legislative appointee

Auburn chafes at county ruling
Attorneys for the county and city

will debate a ruling that shrinks the Androscoggin County Budget Committee

AUBURN – Auburn is opposing a ruling that would keep the city, the second-largest in Androscoggin County, from having a voice among the overseers of the county’s multimillion-dollar budget.

The three-member county commission decided Wednesday to cut two seats from its Budget Committee, eliminating positions that Auburn city officials had hoped to fill with their nominees.

The reason: The city never attended a county selection meeting.

“I have no control over who shows up at the caucus,” Commissioner Helen Poulin said Friday. “The process is done.”

Not so fast, say Auburn officials.

City attorney Pat Scully plans to talk with county attorney Bryan Dench in coming days.

Laurie Smith, Auburn’s acting city manager, hopes the attorneys will find a reasonable middle ground, perhaps adding the contested committee seats after all.

“Our reading of the law is that our district must have three seats,” Smith said.

Auburn Mayor John Jenkins hopes the commission and the city will find a friendly way to add more people to the committee.

“I don’t want this to be decided in the courts,” Jenkins said. “People elect leaders, not lawyers.”

The stakes are too high for Auburn to be left behind, he said.

After all, the county has a current budget of about $10 million, and Auburn’s share of the bill is second only to Lewiston’s.

Jenkins has talked with all three county commissioners. He described them as “helpful and informative.”

Auburn is in one of three voting districts in the county, part of a decades-old construct that includes three nights of caucuses, nominations and elections among the deciding bodies of the county’s 14 towns and cities.

The meetings should have taken no one by surprise. In letters dated July 10 and in a fax dated July 30, the county clerk sent out notices to each municipality of the selection meetings, held on Aug. 14, 15 and 16.

Traditionally, the meetings are divided along districts. District 1 comprises Durham, Greene, Leeds, Lisbon, Livermore, Livermore Falls, Sabattus, Turner and Wales. District 2 encompasses Auburn, Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland. District 3 is Lewiston.

On each night, elected officials from the district’s towns may make nominations. Those nominations go back to councils or selectmen in each town. The top three vote-getters in each district win a seat.

The Maine Legislature appoints two more seats. And all seats come with a three-year term.

Smith said Friday she understood the process but the City Council failed to make nominations.

“The council had other places to be that night,” she said. That week, councilors had several scheduled meetings to discuss school consolidation and there was a session with the water and sewer district.

It’s a problem that Lewiston also had, getting its nominations into the commission with only minutes to spare.

Attempts to reach county commissioners Constance Cote and Elmer Berry were unsuccessful.

Smith believes that everyone involved in the discussion is doing the best they can to serve voters.

“I think both sides want what’s best for the public,” she said.