AUBURN – The city will slowly transition from using Portland lawyers to hiring Twin Cities counsel for municipal business, City Manager Glenn Aho said.

“We’re not going to take an issue that’s been going on for some time and hand it over to a new attorney,” Aho said. “But we will begin using local law firms as issues come up. As the need arises and time goes by, we’ll transition to all local law representation.”

The city has used lawyers from Portland’s Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer and Nelson for legal advice for years, but councilors this spring said they wanted to consider hiring a law firm that was housed closer to home. Aho came up with a list of 11 local firms and requested proposals from each.

He said Friday he’s received five.

“I’m not going to go out and start interviewing them right away, but I want to learn more about them as the opportunities present themselves,” Aho said. “This will be a relationship we need to build, and that’s what I want to do with each one.”

Aho said the city will continue to rely on Portland attorney Patrick Scully’s expertise in coming months concerning cable television franchise agreements. Scully helped negotiate the franchise agreement with Frontiervision Cable in 1999 for both Lewiston and Auburn. The franchise was taken over by Adelphia in 2001, and Time Warner in 2005. That agreement is scheduled to expire next spring.

“He has the institutional knowledge we need, so it wouldn’t make sense to change at this point,” he said. “There are several issues like this in the city, so it will take some time to make the transition to a local solicitor.”