AUBURN — City councilors will start work on at least one of their goals Thursday night when they go over the process for hiring a new city manager.

Councilors will meet for a special 7 p.m. workshop in Auburn Hall. Mayor Jonathan LaBonte said the first half of the meeting would be devoted to discussion of council roles and responsibilities, with the rest devoted to the city manager’s job.

“We need to go over just how we want to shape the process, how we want to manage what candidates we’re looking for and how we’re going to interview them,” LaBonte said Wednesday.

Councilor Joshua Shea said that fits in perfectly with his goals.

“We really only have one person to hire, but that one person has a lot of work to do,” Shea said. “It’s important for the city we find that person and get them going.”

The previous council voted to terminate City Manager Glenn Aho’s contract in October. In November, the council voted to hire consultants Eaton Peabody to lead the search for Aho’s replacement and manage the city in the meantime.

“We haven’t even advertised for that position yet,” Shea said. “We can’t advertise until we agree on what we want, so it’s important to get going.”

LaBonte said he wants the council to work with Eaton Peabody consultants to create a review process for the new manager.

“The council did not have one in place when they hired the previous manager, and that accounted for at least some of the friction,” LaBonte said.

The City Council has met twice since being sworn in last month. Both meetings were devoted to scheduling meetings. They met Tuesday, agreeing to schedule a special workshop and a regular meeting on Monday, Jan. 9. That meeting will include a 5:30 p.m. workshop and a regular business meeting at 7 p.m.

LaBonte said he expects the council to begin working on its top goals after that meeting. He’s asked councilors to come up with their top five goals and send them to him.

“We will aggregate them and then the council can begin ranking them and working on what they want to accomplish,” LaBonte said.

Councilors on Wednesday had a varied list of projects and goals. At-large Councilor Shea said promoting education and expanding the city’s tax base were among his top goals.

Ward 5 Councilor Leroy Walker said he wanted to discuss road repairs for South Main Street through New Auburn, relocating the city’s Central Fire Station and combining 911 calls and emergency dispatch with the county.

Ward 2 Councilor Robert Hayes said his most important goals are promoting economic development and shared services with Lewiston.

Ward 1 Councilor Tizz Crowley said she wants to work to make city operations more open and accessible.

“I just want to make sure the residents have access to all of the city business information and make sure their voices are heard,” Crowley said. “Whether it’s posted on the Web or not, I want to make sure there’s a good process that allows everyone to participate in government.” 

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