AUBURN — Mayor Dick Gleason says he has no political ax to grind — just a desire to see as many people run for city office as possible.

“I wish every race had five candidates,” Gleason said. “Then we’d show a lot of community interest.”

Gleason said he had met with two groups of Auburn residents interested in running for city office. All 15 seats, including Gleason’s mayoral position, seven City Council seats and seven School Committee seats — are up for election this November.

“These are just interested citizens,” he said. “More or less, I knew there was a meeting and someone asked me to be there. The questions were more tied to procedure than anything. We didn’t talk about politics or the way votes should go or current candidates. We talked about procedure and how you should go about announcing.”

Candidate nominating petitions are officially available Monday in the City Clerk’s Office at Auburn Hall.

Auburn candidates have until Aug. 25 to collect signatures for their nominating petitions. Candidates for mayor have to collect at least 100 signatures from registered voters living anywhere in Auburn. Candidates for City Council and School Committee must collect 25 signatures from anywhere in the city for at-large candidates and from within individual wards for ward candidates.

According to the City Charter, terms for elected officials begin 45 days after the election, which would be Dec. 23.

So far, one candidate has announced his plan to seek a council seat. New Auburn resident Leroy Walker has said he will run for the Ward 5 seat.

That’s not the way Gleason would have done it.

“I think it’s interesting that he’s announced, but he can’t even take out nominating papers yet,” Gleason said. He recommends prospective candidates wait until they begin passing petitions to announce.

“Probably, there’s no harm done if they announce ahead of time,” he said. “But I suggested that once you have your signatures and have brought them back to the clerk, it’s time to announce. I believe in bird in the hand.”

Gleason also advises potential candidates to gather twice as many signatures as are necessary and to be responsive to questions.

“I tell them I hope they’re not running because they have an ax to grind,” he said. “Run because you have a positive vision.”

Understanding the council’s role is important, too, he said. City employees answer to the council as a body, not to individual councilors.

“You are on a board, and you don’t need to be in contact daily with the city manager,” Gleason said.

[email protected]