I begin with a statement that in this day and age if you are not at the table, you become an item on the menu.

Auburn is a city in the state’s most populated county, one of four that has banded together to form the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC). This union came about as leaders of King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties realized they could solve issues by working together rather than fighting each other.

Within the PSRC, we have one of the finest seaports in the world. But we also are surrounded by mountains, and they create problems for transportation. What good does it become if the products that come into our port cannot be economically distributed to potential customer? We compete with other great ports on the West Coast.

We must work together to resolve the problems our economic region faces. Working together does not always mean making everyone happy. It is necessary to make decisions about population distribution, how taxes and grant money will be distributed and what transportation routes need to be addressed.

All these issues affect the opportunity and lifestyles of individuals and regional cities. What is good for the whole might mean problems for cities and citizens. We must be at the table to affect those decisions being discussed before they become policy.

The Suburban Cities Association, Washington Cities Association and Valley Cities are among the many organizations that have been created to affect those decisions that need to be made. We are a two-county city with thousands of residents living in Pierce County, so we have to be at its different committee meetings to represent these citizens.

If you are on the Auburn City Council, it is your duty to search out where – in this great pool of responsibility – your time and talent should be given so that the city of Auburn is not an item on the menu, but is a player on the table.

Auburn residents are fortunate to have seven council members, six of whom accept this responsibility and are working members of at least one of these committees or organizations. Several council members are active members of many groups. We have at least two council people representing us on national committees where they travel to Washington, D.C., at least once a year.

So please, if you vote to reelect Virginia Haugen to office, make her promise to accept the fact that Auburn is not an island unto itself, and that she will sit at the table.

Tell her do not ignore the responsibilities you get with being elected to office as a council person.

– Gene Cerino, former City Council member