By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

Norm Rousseau said he likes the idea of combined Lewiston-Auburn operations. But he doesn’t like feeling rushed into a decision.

“I’d rather put down the groundwork first and do this properly, rather than jump the gun,” said Rousseau, a Lewiston city councilor. “I don’t have problems with combining services with Auburn. But if we’re going to do it, I think we need to be careful with it.”

On Monday, Rousseau was among three Lewiston councilors and two Auburn councilors who refused to support a request to have the cities applying for grant money from the state. The request did receive enough votes to pass. If grant money is awarded to Lewiston-Auburn, it will be used to hire a cooperation coordinator, answerable to both city councils, to guide cooperation efforts.

“There are too many unanswered questions,” Rousseau said. “Who’s going to hire this person, if we do get the money? Who’s going to be in charge of this guy? These are things we should have discussed with our staff, other councilors and our voters.”

Members of the Mayors’ Commission on Joint Services presented a report Monday night urging the cities to make building, plumbing and fire codes match as quickly as possible and also plan computer upgrades so those systems would match within a year. Those changes would save money, make both operations more efficient and would lead to more cooperation down the road, according to the commission.

The report also calls for combining “back-office operations” – tax collecting, accounting and tax assessing – within three years. Primary functions, like police, fire and public works, could be combined after five years.

The report urges the cities to establish a cooperation commission immediately, with three members from each city. It also recommended the cities hire a staff coordinator to work with that group and manage code and computer issues.

Both councils agreed to ask the state for grant money Monday, despite a caution from Lewiston City Administrator Jim Bennett to slow down.

“We don’t need to do everything fast here, and I don’t believe waiting two to four weeks will jeopardize anything,” Bennett said Monday. “But if we hurry, if we make it look like we’re jumping to get grant money, it sets a tone for your employees. And they’re the very people you’re going to need to make this happen.”

Lewiston Councilor Renee Bernier agreed.

“I would have liked a little more time to talk it over with staff,” she said. “Plus, we need to have the discussion with the public. We need to find out what they think. I don’t want anyone thinking we’re trying to shove this thing down their throat.”

Auburn Councilor Belinda Gerry said she wanted more time to review the documents. The group’s report was presented in two documents, a final report and working documents. Auburn councilors didn’t receive the working documents until Monday afternoon.

“We didn’t have anywhere near enough time to look over the entire thing,” Gerry said. “Even when we did, we should have had a chance to discuss it among ourselves. But we never got that opportunity. We were forced right into it.”

Councilor Donna Lyons Rowell agreed.

“Lewiston felt the same way we did,” she said. “Why rush into everything? It takes time to go over it and put it all together. So, let’s talk about it first and not dive into something we’re not sure of.”

Only Lewiston Councilor Paul Samson backed off of his “no” vote Monday night. Samson said he misunderstood and thought he was voting to hire a staff person right away, without getting state grant money.