There is finally movement from the Auburn City Council on the long awaited search process for a new city manager. On Tuesday night, by a 4-0 vote (councilor David Dempsey was late for the meeting and missed the vote), the council appointed five individuals to assist with the search process. While it is still not clear what their job is to be it is assumed that they will pare down the number of candidates to a manageable list for the mayor and city council to interview.

One has to wonder if the announcement last week, from Cayuga Community College Board of Trustees President Peter Blauvelt, naming a 12 person committee to find a successor for that institution's president, Dr. Dennis Golladay, may have spurred city council to finally get their act together. The college was able to name a search committee within roughly 45 days of Golladay's announcement that he was going to Albany to work for SUNY. They were able to come up with a search plan in about one-third of the time of the city council that has dawdled on the same issue.

The makeup and size of the city's search committee has been one of mindless and erratic debate for several weeks. Against the excellent advice of city corporation counsel Thomas Leone, who urged the city council to look at a committee that represented specific disciplines (i.e. finance, labor and legal), the mayor and city council instead went with a list mainly suggested by councilor William Graney of well regarded citizens.

The committee consists of a group of five individuals who are against reproach from a public relations perspective. Graney has admitted that he is grateful for their wiliness to serve, having had several other well known and highly regarded individuals turn him down for the task.

Yet, the pressure for action is unfairly passing to the search committee because of the failures of the mayor and city council to make decisions on the process early on.

For example, the ads for the position of city manager have run without their input. Just as importantly they are going to be pressed during the holiday season to get someone by the first of the year; a wholly unrealistic expectation at this point set by city council.

While it is about time that the mayor and city council have acted, the public should be wary of the burden being put on these five individuals. There is a long way to go before we know if what they will be doing is just window dressing for political cover or if they have been given an assignment that will not be given the support and respect they deserve.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be e-mailed at cozguytho@aol.com