I am writing today to encourage the citizens of Auburn to approve the revised Auburn charter when they go to the polls Nov. 1. The Auburn Charter Commission has spent nine months listening to citizens, and reviewing and rewriting the document that guides and determines the responsibilities and rights of our professional staff, our elected officials and our citizenry.

This new charter uses clear and simple language that can be easily read and understood. There are some changes that have been made to promote more citizen involvement by creating some new processes and procedures. The charter provides for citizens to vote on large bond issues and proposes that elections for mayor, council and school committee be changed to the odd-numbered years so that the electorate can focus on local elections. There are some new procedures established that will result in better communication between the Auburn School Department and the city. A new audit committee will be created with participants from the School Committee and the City Council. Other thoughtful changes in the charter can be read by going to the Auburn Public Library or asking for a copy of the new proposed charter at Auburn Hall.

We all need to thank the Charter Commission for its hard work and for revising our Auburn charter so that it will make our governing process more interactive and easily understood, accomplishing this while retaining our council-manager form of government that has served us so well for over a century.

Lee Young, Auburn

Editor’s note: Lee Young served as Auburn’s mayor from 1997 to 2002.