LISBON — Lisbon voters overwhelmingly answered an advisory question on the November municipal ballot by indicating that they want to vote on the municipal budget by referendum.

That vote left town officials deciding how to proceed relative to the town’s existing charter.

To the advisory question, “Do the voters of the town of Lisbon wish to vote on an amendment to the town charter that, if enacted, would require voter approval at a referendum election for each annual Municipal Budget?” voters answered “ yes” on 2,025 ballots and “no” on 514 ballots.

Maine law allows for revisions and amendments to charters. However, town attorney Roger Therriault told town councilors Tuesday, “ There is no case law in Maine that tells us what the distinction is between a charter revision and a charter amendment. Obviously, they are both changes and what we’ve read seems to indicate that it is a magnitude of change that makes the distinction.”

The Maine Municipal Association defines a charter revision as “ a fundamental change in the form or scheme of government, while an amendment is really a change or correction of detail,” Therriault said. “I don’t know how helpful you find that. I don’t find that terribly helpful. There are no definitions in the statute.”

Therriault said he assumed a municipal budget referendum process would trigger a charter amendment, and that while it is not changing the fundamental form of government, it is a substantial change in the powers and duties of the Town Council, including how it does business, and its authority regarding how to fund government services in town.

Summarizing his discussion with an MMA representative, Therriault said, “they sort of lean on the side of this being a revision. I can’t disagree with that. I think it can also be an amendment,” and “there are pros and cons with respect to both.”

The amendment would be quicker than a revision, and Therriault said he thinks could be “ done in- house if need be.”

In either case, the voters must approve any changes.

Pointing to a safeguard already in the charter, David Bowie, a member of the original charter commission, said Tuesday, “If the budget adopted by the council isn’t what the people feel they can live with, they can call for a special town meeting through the referendum initiative process.”

To call the special town meeting, a petitioning committee of five or more people would need to specify which articles it wants put out to a townwide vote. Petitioners would have to collect enough signatures to represent at least 15 percent of the votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election, Bowie said.

To be valid, the special town meeting decision requires 250 votes cast total. If there is no valid decision made, then the original council budget takes effect.

“What’s most critical is that if we’re looking at making decisions on a referendum process versus another process, we are concerned that the referendum process could open us up to an awful lot of possible problems,” Bowie said.

Deciding a municipal budget by referendum is rare in Maine. However, the charter commission found quite a few examples in Connecticut. In some of those communities, it took as many as five referendum votes to decide the budget.

“Perhaps the biggest argument for a revision is the fact that it is such a complex thing to do,” Bowie said. He listed more than a dozen decisions that would have to be made if the town implements an annual budget referendum.

Among the questions Bowie raised are:

— Is the referendum on the whole budget, programs or line items?

— Will people vote on mandated costs, such as county tax or debt service?

— Will it be possible to have alternatives?

— How many times are you going to vote?

— Will a minimum number of votes need to be cast?

—What if a change in one area of the budget forces a change in another?

If town officials decide to revise the charter, former charter commission chairman Michael Huston said it should be done by a charter commission made up of a diverse group of townspeople.

“I think that’s a more democratic way to do this than to leave it up to the council,” Huston said.

Councilor Roger Bickford said, “We just had a referendum vote to take away people’s rights, or make it harder for people to remove a councilor, and I voted for that. And it seems like there’s no problem — we don’t have to have a major rewrite on anything — to do something to take the power away from the people, but to give the people some power, we’ve got to have a whole charter rewrite for that. I just don’t think that’s right.”

Ken Wells, also a past charter commission member, said, “I’d rather have the seven of you who have gone through how many days, weeks, months of going over the budget line item by line item, picking it apart to approve it or not approve it, than somebody who’s just emotional who’s pissed off at the police department for something, to reject the budget. That’s the reason we went to this form of government, and you were elected to do the job.”

Listening to the discussion between councilors and former charter commissioners, resident Larry Fillmore said he doesn’t think the problem is with the current process as much as with the communication between townspeople and the people doing the budget. He recommended posting working budget documents on the town website when workshops or meetings are scheduled, and then inviting people to come so they can ask questions and be more informed.

Roger Cote, a former councilor, also addressed the council Tuesday and told them that townspeople voted to hold an annual budget referendum.

“The bottom line is, the people want it,” Cote said. “Give it to them.”

In an email to The Times Record on Wednesday, Town Manager Steve Eldridge said no official deadline for the charter change vote exists. If the council decides to have the town attorney write amendments to the charter, it would take several months to hold the necessary meetings to review changes and make recommendations, then hold public hearings. The targeted time for a vote on the change would be the November election.

If the council chooses to create a charter commission to make the changes, the town would need to hold an election for commission members and the council would need to appoint three members to the commission. This would still provide enough time to put the charter revision on the November ballot, according to Eldridge.

dmoore@timesrecord.com