LEWISTON – Having a group of citizens review the city’s budget is a great idea according to city councilors, but the timing is wrong.

Councilors won’t create a panel to help them review the city’s 2008-09 budget this spring.

“We don’t want to add to the workload of staff just to create a second group to review the budget,” Councilor Robert Reed said. “I believe that will just cause chaos.”

Instead, Reed suggested creating the committee in the fall. They would review the city’s budget going forward and make recommendations next year, as councilors prepare to review the 2009-10 budget.

That had the support of other councilors, according to Council President Tom Peters.

“We have a tendency to committee things to death,” he said.

But the vote didn’t sit well with Mayor Larry Gilbert, who respectfully disagreed with the councilors.

Gilbert tried to create a similar budget committee last year, but was stymied by an uncooperative City Council. The council eventually adopted a budget with a 5.86 percent, $4.8 million spending increase. That included a $2.7 million increase in property tax collections as well as increases in stormwater utility fees and water rates.

“My idea is to find nine members of the public and provide them with same information we get and have them attend presentations on department heads,” Gilbert said. “More eyes from the general public makes better recommendations.”

Councilors said they wanted more public involvement in the budget discussions and changed their procedures for workshop meetings allowing public comment on every issue.

“We’re doing that specifically for these budget workshops, to encourage people to attend them and bring up their ideas,” Poulin said. City staff said they would investigate publishing individual department budgets to the Internet before each meeting. That would give voters the same information councilors get.

Reed said he offered the creation of a budget committee later in the year as a compromise for Gilbert.

“But it’s not a compromise,” Gilbert said. “A compromise would be a discussion on the number of people on the committee, but this is not a compromise.”

With no support from the mayor, councilors tabled the item indefinitely.

Councilors also Tuesday took delivery of the Capital Improvement Plan for fiscal year 2008-09. That’s the first stage of budget discussions, and includes rough costs for purchasing equipment and building, road and construction projects.

Councilors will see the capital projects plan again in February when they review it with the Lewiston Planning Board.