Questions, Answers, Comments
January 25, 2017
The following comments and questions came up from the audience after the presentations:
Q. Will the new schools being built offset the savings that are projected for the school departments.
A. No. Peter Geiger, who serves as a member of the Maine State Board of Education, responded that the state pays the full cost of new schools. New schools do not cost the communities anything, unless the voters in those communities want features that go beyond the standard.
Q. Has any thought been given to how union agreements will be affected?
A. Yes. Information and projections are included in the study. Each city has different agreements with the unions it has contracts with, and there are differences across the river. In some cases wages are higher, but in other cases some benefits are better. A merger would not affect any existing union contracts. Each contract must run it course and then be renegotiated. There would likely be “harmonization” of wages and benefits, but as with any negotiations there would be “give and take.”
Q. Have deferred maintenance costs been quantified?
A. No.
Q. How are you going to educate the public about the complex issues in this study? You probably should break it down section by section and have separate education sections for each.
A. We had not thought of that. Good idea.
Q. What do the average savings per taxpayer look like? They don’t look so large for any one person.
A. Savings detail per taxpayer are shown in the study. One can look at how much the average person will benefit. One can also look at how much is saved year over year in total. $20 to $40 million dollars over a decade after full implementation is a lot of money. Where else can one find this amount of money that can be saved or reallocated?
Q. How will you educate the community? What about a summary pamphlet?
A. We are aware that we have to do a lot of talking and listening and learning. We will talk with any group anywhere. If people will open their homes to conversation, we will be there. And we will work to develop good explanatory materials.
Q. When it comes to districting, Auburn will always have less people, and Lewiston may dominate.
A. This assumes that the new mayor and city council will act with the Lewiston versus Auburn mentality, rather than view what is best for the community as a whole. Why would they do that? Why would they want to annoy a significant portion of the electorate?
Beyond that, given that of 5 wards there will be 2 river-spanning wards with 2 councilors from each, it is possible that at a given point of time the mayor and 6 councilors could reside on the west side of the river and have 7 of the 11 total votes.
Q. How will people access the materials that were presented if they do not have a computer.
A. Good idea. We will make sure that several printed copy sets will be in each library.
Q. Will you work with the School Committee to flush out further ideas and details?
A. Yes.
C. “If we always do what we always did, we’ll always get what we always got.”
C. You have to get information into people’s hands.
Q. Will you have a social media page, such as on Facebook, so that there can be more discussion?
A. Yes.
Q. Will this be shown on TV?
A. Great Falls TV recording it. Click here to view. Lewiston Rocks streamed it Live. An audio recording was also made. Click here to listen.
Q. Will consolidation result in a loss of state revenues?
A. No. We looked into that issue with state experts.
Q. The difference in property valuation between the two communities will result in a tax shift?
A.No. Detailed tax analysis is included in the report.
Q.How will citizens get information during the transition phase?
A.The Transition Task Force includes elected and appointed officials from both cities and three citizens – one who will be a member of the charter commission. It is anticipated that the task force will have frequent public meetings and regular report outs to the city councils.
Q.Will the savings actually be realized and will they be significant?
A.Actual budget decisions will be made by the new city council but if the past is an indicator, councils are interested in how they can save money. We believe that $2.3 million per year is significant.
C.Current city councils will be required to hold a public hearing on the charter proposal. It looks like the election will be November 7. Savings will be up to future councils.
C. City operations group went into the options review with an open mind. It will be very important that all the information in the report gets out to the public and into the hands of voters.