Some Twin Cities councilors say they are willing to consider letting Androscoggin County control property value assessing duties.

“This looks like it could be win on both sides of the river and a way to give the city consolidation effort some new life,” Lewiston Councilor Tom Peters said. “If we can get a win on this one issue, it might lead to other things.”

Peters said he was talking privately with Auburn councilors Dan Herrick and Mike Farrell when the idea came up. It would allow both cities to give assessing responsibilities to the county government. The assessing departments appraise property values, especially real estate values. Those values are used to determine property taxes for homes and businesses, as well as state aid to education, sales tax revenue distribution and county taxes paid by each city.

“It would mean savings of at least one position in both cities,” Peters said. It might also make property tax assessing more efficient, letting the county offer similar services to smaller local communities.

“Assessing is a state-controlled job, and the assessors in both cities officially act on behalf of the state,” Peters said. “This just made sense to me, and seemed consistent with what we’ve been trying to do.”

Peters said he suggested Herrick and Farrell check with their Auburn colleges, and he would check with Lewiston councilors and members of the Citizens Commission on Joint Lewiston Auburn Cooperation.

Peters said he would like to see a group of Auburn and Lewiston councilors and city staffers meet with county officials and members of the commission.

“If this idea has any merit at all, let’s move it forward and see where it goes,” he said.

Herrick said that two other councilors agreed the idea was worth investigating. Mayor John Jenkins said Friday that councilors discussed the idea briefly during a special workshop meeting Thursday.

“It’s an idea that’s on the table, and we will consider it,” Jenkins said. He’s expecting the commission to evaluate the idea later this spring.

Peter Garcia, co-chairman of the cooperation group, said his group is waiting for official word from Auburn before they begin evaluating the concept.

“To date, Lewiston’s council has informed us they’d be interested in further reviewing the concept. We hope Auburn will do the same,” Garcia said.

But at least one Auburn councilor said Monday that he resented the way the concept was presented. Ward 5’s Ray Berube said the idea should have been brought to the City Council first.

“We promised to be a transparent government, and going behind closed doors is not very transparent,” Berube said. “It should have been brought up in the full council first, in public session.”

Herrick said he talked to councilors privately at first, just to see if the idea had any merit.

“I don’t feel like we did anything behind closed doors,” Herrick said. “It was a new idea, and we were trying to work it out, just saying ‘how about this?'”