While the buzz at Memorial City Hall the last few weeks has revolved around Auburn city manager John Salomone's uncertain future, some crucial city business has been taking place:

€ The city is starting the process to evaluate its management structure, with an eye toward finding areas where departments can be consolidated in order to cut costs.

€ A review of the planning and permitting process has begun after numerous business owners in the city aired frustrations with how the system works and with how certain city departments respond to their inquiries.

€ City councilors are taking a hard look at a hiring proposal within the Auburn Fire Department, with the goal of reducing the department's out-of-control overtime expenses.

If Salomone should leave for a new job in Connecticut, establishing an interim manager and then searching for a permanent replacement certainly will need to be a high priority for city council.

The process, however, could take months to complete. It could easily stretch into the fall, when Salomone's right-hand-man, corporation counsel Tom Leone, will be busy running for county judge.

But all of these matters cannot become an excuse to neglect other issues that badly need to be addressed.

The responsibility for making sure the city continues moving forward in the absence of a permanent city manager falls primarily with the council, which could be considered a frightening prospect. Some councilors are better-known for internal squabbles than their ability to work cooperatively together on important city business.

In this case, though, they have no choice. Failure to address key issues that have come up in recent months could easily lead to a budget season next spring that is bloodier than the most recent one. And that would not bode well for the councilors looking to keep their seats in the 2007 election.