AUBURN — Former city councilors, a state legislator and the president of the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce are among the candidates seeking to represent Auburn on a combined Twin Cities Charter Commission.
Six residents submitted enough petition signatures to guarantee themselves spots on the June 10 ballot.
“Each one submitted at least 100 signatures on their nomination papers and now they are all done,” City Clerk Sue Clements-Dallaire said.
Voters in both cities will go the polls June 10 to choose a total of six residents to represent the cities on a new charter commission — three from Auburn and three from Lewiston.
Auburn candidates include state Rep. Michael Beaulieu, former city councilors Verne Paradie Jr. and John Spruill Jr., Chamber President Charles “Chip” Morrison, resident Alfreda Fournier and resident Holly Lasagna.
Fournier is an Auburn retiree who most recently served on the New School Steering Committee that studied replacing Edward Little High School. Lasagna is an associate director of the community-engaged learning program at the Harward Center at Bates College.
The deadline to secure a spot on the ballot was March 27 in Auburn. Potential candidates in Lewiston still have time to get their names on the ballot, until April 11.
So far, four candidates have secured spots on Lewiston’s ballot. They are Charles A. Soule, David Chittim, Eugene Geiger and Lucien B. Gosselin.
Five others had taken out nomination papers but had not turned them to the Lewiston City Clerk’s Office to secure a spot on the ballot.
The June 10 election is only to select the charter commission members. That group will work to craft a founding document uniting the two cities, to choose a name for the new city and to list each community’s debts and assets, a name and location for city offices, rules of government and rules for the transition.
Once that work is done, a unification proposal will go to voters for public review and debate. It would have to be approved by voters in both cities to become law, and that election likely wouldn’t happen until November 2015.
There is no time limit to the work. The commission can take as long is it needs to draft the new charter.
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