For months now, members of the Auburn City Council have been in battle with each other over whether to repeal an ordinance that applies to how they do business.

For more than 40 years, we had committees in which three council members worked with guidance from our City attorney and department directors — public works, finance, planning, finance, etc. The system worked.

Because members were spending time in meetings outside City Hall, however, they chose to replace that system with study sessions.

When several members realized they were not getting information in a way that allowed them to be efficient and/or effective, they wanted to go back to the old procedures or a variation of them.

On Nov. 28 our City Council, with Deputy Mayor Largo Wales at the helm, spent an enormous amount of time haggling about an issue that could have been settled in a committee meeting with a vote to send it to the full council at its general meeting.

Thanks to Wagner, Trout, Peloza and Wales for working to resolve the discord on the Auburn City Council.

As my neighbor says: “If you don’t like the heat, get away from the stove.”

The residents of Auburn, who are the people who pay taxes here, deserve paid elected officials who are willing to do the work of the City in a timely and cost-effective way.

As for Deputy Mayor Wales, she seems to be taking her assignment very seriously. A tip of the hat to Ms. Wales for managing the most exhausting meeting I’ve ever been to in the city of Auburn.

– Virginia Haugen