AUBURN – Councilors will caucus next week at the start of their next regular meeting to select someone to lead in Mayor Normand Guay’s absence.

The City Council spent the bulk of its workshop meeting Monday deciding how to pick a pro-tem mayor while Guay vacations in Florida.

Guay told city Councilor Kelly Matzen and City Manager Pat Finnigan that he would be gone last week, Matzen said. He also told Matzen to fill in while he was gone. Matzen said he expected councilors to vote at the beginning of next week’s City Council meeting to ratify Guay’s choice.

That’s the way it’s always been done, Matzen said. It’s consistent with the City Charter and legal, he said.

But Councilor Belinda Gerry argued that councilors are supposed to choose the temporary mayor, according to the City Charter.

“We have been accused in the past of violating our council rules on things like executive sessions,” Gerry said. “I don’t want to create another thing where the public can come back and say we did it wrong, again.”