LEWISTON – Councilors rebuked City Administrator Jim Bennett on Tuesday for talking to his Auburn counterpart about sharing a police chief without council approval or knowledge.

“With large items like this, I want to be notified – especially considering our history with Auburn,” Councilor Denis Theriault said. Theriault expressed doubts about whether Bennett should even be involved with hiring a police chief to replace the outgoing William Welch.

Bennett said that it’s the city administrator’s job to hire a police chief, not the council’s.

“The council runs this city,” Theriault said. “You said that you have the right to hire and fire a police chief, but I say we have the right to hire and fire one employee,” Theriault said.

According to the city’s charter, Bennett is the only employee expressly hired by the City Council.

Bennett said he sent an e-mail to Auburn City Manager Glenn Aho in March asking to meet with Aho and Auburn Police Chief Phil Crowell to discuss sharing Crowell. That meeting was scheduled for last week, but was canceled.

“It was more of a basis to see if they were even interested at all, just to see what the possibilities were,” Bennett said. “I just wanted to see what the hurdles would be.”

Auburn councilors Monday discussed the matter and gave Aho and Crowell their approval to talk with Lewiston, and Bennett said he received an e-mail from Aho on Tuesday morning.

Theriault said councilors should have been told about the discussions directly, rather than hearing about it secondhand. Councilors Bob Reed and Tina Bailey agreed.

“If you talk to Auburn at all, Jim, just let us know,” Bailey said. “You may think you’re talking off the record, but you never know. If you just talk to us, we won’t have this problem.”

But Councilor Nelson Peters defended Bennett, saying it was his job to explore ideas before reporting back to the council.

“He has the right to explore every possibility to save money he can,” Peters said. “I don’t believe it’s up to the administrator to come to us every time he has a thought.”

His brother, Councilor Tom Peters agreed, saying it wasn’t wise for councilors to hamper Bennett.

“We can’t handcuff him like this,” Peters said.

Councilors did approve Bennett’s timeline for finding a new chief. The city plans to form a 10-member committee to take applications and review candidates. That group will include Deputy City Administrator Phil Nadeau, Mayor Larry Gilbert, two city councilors, a police labor union representative, a member of the city’s management team, a chamber of commerce representative, two residents and one downtown resident. Call the administrator’s office, at 513-3121, to apply for the position.

The group should begin meeting in May to develop job advertisements and should begin reviewing resumes in June.

Bennett hopes to have the new police chief hired by October.