LEWISTON — It’s been 31 years since the city adopted its current charter and Mayor Larry Gilbert thinks it’s time it was reviewed.
“We should never go this long,” Gilbert said. “Things change and maybe we should, too.”
Gilbert said he’s expecting each councilor to give him names of two volunteers by Wednesday. He’ll select one from each of the seven councilors for a charter review committee. He said he could name them by the Sept. 6 council meeting.
The group, working with City Administrator Ed Barrett, will review the current charter and see if it needs to be updated or if it needs a full revision.
Gilbert said one idea could be staggering City Council elections so that some members of the council remain in office after each election.
“Do we want to vote out the entire council every two years? Because that can happen,” Gilbert said. “Maybe it makes sense to leave some in office. Otherwise, you lose that continuity.”
Other issues, according to a city memo, include changing the charter’s budget rules to match state education funding requirements, updating the notification rules for bond hearings and deleting reference to the city’s pension committee.
“Another issue I have is with the mayor’s office,” Gilbert said. “The mayor usually has debates and people running against him, and he’s elected by the whole city, while there may be only one person running for council seat. But the mayor doesn’t get a vote. Maybe he should, or some sort of veto.”
The group is expected to report to the City Council with recommendations in November. Councilors will decide then if they want to move forward with small changes or a full revision. A new charter would require a special vote to elect a charter commission, followed by a vote to adopt the new charter.
Gilbert said he won’t be in office by then. He ends his second full term in January and that’s the limit for mayors, according to the charter.
“So I’m not doing any of this for myself,” he said. “It’s just something we need to look at, and probably more often than we have.”
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