Regarding your nasty Sunday editorial maligning the Democratic majority on the city council: The contentious atmosphere in city hall is the result of the political gamesmanship of the maverick mayor and his protege, the interim manager.

They seem to have forgotten that we have a council-manager form of government - not mayor-manager - council-manager.

Policy decisions such as the hiring of the entire legal staff should include consultation with the council members.

Some had never met the rumored appointees, much less interviewed them.

It is also patently unfair for the temporary manager to act as an independent agent to hire three attorneys who would of necessity rearrange their current work situations to accept city positions with no guarantee of employment beyond the tenure of the person selecting them.

In fact, the wisdom of accepting a position under those circumstances could be questioned.

And how exactly was the decision made to hire three lawyers for what had been two lawyer vacancies?

If the mayor, council member Matt Smith and your newspaper want to fume, so be it.

The process was an illogical mess and the Democrats put a stop to it the only way they could.

Katie Lacey

Auburn

Lacey is chair for the Cayuga

County Democrats