LEWISTON — A group of seven volunteers will begin their review of the city’s charter later this month.

Mayor Larry Gilbert announced his list of nominees to a charter review committee Thursday. The group will review the city’s founding document, looking for potential changes and ways to improve the charter.

Nominees include former Mayor Lionel Guay Jr., Growth Council President Lucien Gosselin and former City Human Resources Director Denis Jean.

Other appointees are retired teacher Aaron Burke, financial analyst Ron Farris, local attorney Anthony Ferguson, and Planning Board member Paul Robinson.

That group is scheduled to begin working with City Administrator Ed Barrett the week of Sept. 19.

The charter was adopted in 1980. Parts have been changed, but the entire document has not been reviewed since then.

The group is expected to report back 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.

Member Paul Robinson said he had not read the entire charter before joining the committee.

“It’s only 38 pages, so I’m kind of really looking forward to it,” Robinson said. “I’m not going in to reinvent the wheel, just to talk about it and see what works.”

Robinson said he’d be interested in considering giving the mayor more responsibility. The mayor currently does not vote unless there is a tie among councilors.

“But he’s the only person elected by the entire city, so maybe he should have something,” Robinson said. “The other thing, I want to look at what other charters in similar cities are like. Maybe there are somethings they do better, that we could learn from.”

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