LEWISTON — Twin Cities voters won’t see a vote to combine Lewiston and Auburn on November’s ballot.

Lewiston-Auburn Charter Commission Chairman Gene Geiger said Tuesday that commissioners have too much work to do and too many questions to answer to get the charter question ready for a November vote.

“We have this, but maybe we should take a look and run through it one more time,” Geiger said. “Have we thought through everything we should?”

Geiger said commissioners had not decided when they’d like to put the matter before voters. It could go on the November 2017 ballot alongside Lewiston and Auburn’s mayoral, City Council and School Committee votes, or it could wait until the bigger draw of November 2018’s gubernatorial election.

“I don’t want this to go on forever,” Geiger said. “We just simply have not decided. I don’t want to presume or give a specific date because we don’t want to be held to it. All I can say is that when we looked at the things that need to be discussed, we decided we could not do a proper job and get it ready for a vote this November.”

Jim Howaniec, chairman of the Committee Opposed to Lewiston-Auburn Consolidation, said his group is philosophical about the delay. 

“We’re not going to overreact to this news, but we are disappointed,” Howaniec said. “We would like to see this move forward to the ballot in November, but I think it’s pretty much out of our hands.”

Lewiston and Auburn voters elected six commissioners — three from each city — in June 2014 to study and draft a new charter combining the two cities. The group has met twice each month to discuss government options, meet with local government representatives and write a draft charter combining language from the Lewiston and Auburn charters and a national model charter.

When they are finished with the task, the proposed charter will go to both cities for a final vote. Voters in both cities must agree to adopt the charter independently.

The commission released the draft of the charter as well as a document comparing it with the current Lewiston and Auburn charters  in January and a baseline report of both cities’ operations in June. Both are available via download at newlacharter.ning.com, the Charter Commission’s website.

Geiger said it was one person’s review of the draft charter that convinced commissioners to delay the process. Geiger said the commission received a report questioning whether a combined city’s annual election should be in June instead of November and if the mayor should have term limits, suggesting the mayor serve also as head of the School Committee.

“They are ideas worthy of our discussing,” Geiger said. “But more significantly, it made us wonder if we should not go back and look at this charter and see if there are some innovations or ideas we have not considered.”

Geiger said the group also wants to have a more in-depth discussion about how to transition from two cities to one if the charter succeeds at the polls.

“How much should be left to the discretion of the lame-duck politicians and how much should be tossed to the new mayor and City Council?” Geiger said. “You want to be clear enough so that you don’t end up with a mess and something so loose that nobody is sure what should be done. But you can’t handcuff the two city councils so much they can’t do their job(s).”

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