It would be easy to look at Tuesday's emergency meeting of the city council - called to approve a $450 travel request from Mayor Tim Lattimore - and conclude that the new requirement for council approval on travel expenses is going too far.

The city cannot function if it has to call “emergency” council sessions every day to address what may seem like routine expenses.

But the point of this requirement is to save money, and if that causes city employees - including members of council - to carefully consider whether they need go on a particular trip, then it's worth it.

And that includes Lattimore's request.

Lattimore plans to travel to Washington, D.C. to meet with U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert to discuss alternative energy.

Frankly, the mayor's been discussing alternative energy every day from the time the sun rises since he was campaigning for office in 2003.

And Boehlert's heard the mayor's pitch, and if he hasn't, the Congressman can come to the mayor. Boehlert makes regular trips to Auburn, which will become more frequent in this, a re-election year.

If the mayor is going to spend $450 on a trip, he should be meeting with manufacturing firms who may be seriously considering moving their businesses and jobs to Auburn.

We agree with councilors Tom McNabb and David Dempsey: This trip doesn't seem necessary.

Regardless, the mayor said he had been talking about his Washington travel plans well before this week. City manager John Salomone, though, said a formal travel request did not come to him until this week, so he had no choice but ask the council to convene.

Perhaps Salomone was trying to send a message to Lattimore, who proposed the council travel signoff requirement. Salomone may view the new policy - along with the council's new rule that it approves expenditures above $3,000 and all hires - as micromanaging the city and stepping on his toes.

OK, forget the perhaps. Salomone was sending a message.

But the city manager needs to realize that these councilors must answer to the taxpayers in the voting booth. And, for once, they have wisely stepped up to take charge of a potentially disastrous financial situation for the city - a projected $2.7 million budget deficit.

Ultimately, Salomone was right to call Tuesday's meeting. Let's chalk up the “emergency” to unlucky timing - the new policy went into effect on a day that prevented Lattimore from getting his travel plans approved at a regular meeting.

We agree that this council cannot regularly be calling emergency meetings, but it shouldn't have to. Ideally, travel requests will be made well in advance, so the council approval will come during its regular Thursday meetings.