LEWISTON – Expect the same kind of hands-on, executive approach to the mayor’s job from Larry Gilbert after Tuesday’s election.

“I have a lot I want to accomplish, and I’m task-oriented and high energy,” Gilbert said Thursday. “Hopefully, the new council will be the same way.”

Gilbert is finishing the last few weeks of Lionel Guay’s 2005 term and is virtually guaranteed a two-year term of his own after Tuesday’s election.

He is running unopposed for the mayor’s chair.

And he will get a new council to go along with his new term.

All but two of the seven sitting councilors have opted not to seek re-election. Both incumbents – Ward 1’s Stavros Mendros and Ward 4’s Ron Jean – are facing tough competition for their seats. Former Planning Board Chairman Thomas Peters is hoping to unseat Mendros in Ward 1. Jean faces former Planning Board member Denis Theriault in Ward 4.

But even if Jean and Mendros return, Gilbert can expect a new council. Both regularly supported Gilbert, often in opposition to council majorities.

Gilbert didn’t want to make predictions or support any candidates. Most of the races are will be close. Only Ward 7 candidate Robert Reed, director of patient accounting at Martins Point Healthcare, is running unopposed. He’s also virtually guaranteed a council seat.

Gilbert said he’s hoping to schedule a retreat with the new councilors after January’s inauguration.

“I’d hope we could have a chance to get to know each other, and get oriented about what we want to accomplish,” Gilbert said.

Joint services

Top on his list will be shared services with Auburn. He’s a big advocate of combining city functions, and worked both on the Mayor’s Commission on Joint Services and the LA Together effort in 1996.

It’s a worthwhile effort that’s not moving quickly enough.

“There have been several missed opportunities,” he said. When Auburn’s City Manager Pat Finnigan stepped down in May, both cities could have moved forward if they’d agreed to hire one top manager.

“If you take the two cities and put them together, we’re still under the population of Portland – and Portland operates with one city manager,” Gilbert said. “With one manager, you move things forward.”

A single manager can cut through intercity rivalries better than anyone else.

He doesn’t think the new council will be too tough to convince – as long as they keep an open mind. Most of the council candidates have said they are skeptical of shared services with Auburn.

“I guess I’d ask those candidates: Have they read the report?” Gilbert said. “It’s happened all over Canada. The city of Quebec and all of these towns around it have consolidated and have one mayor now. What makes Maine so very different?”

That’s not the only issue he expects the new council to face. He has an entire list of issues – property revaluations, new labor contracts, economic development issues, economic development and how to let residents challenge council decisions. The sitting council hasn’t been able to create a new policy for letting residents pass petitions door-to-door.

The new council must settle it, he said.

“After all, what are we as councilors and the mayor but delegates of the people,” he said. “We have to find a way to make it easier to veto the council decisions, or initiate something themselves. We don’t have a good mechanism now.”