Now that the Auburn City Council has passed its budget for 2007-08, kicking off the new fiscal year on July 1, it's now time to review and act on non-budgetary issues, which are still important to the way the city operates. One such review should be the way it has been handling its public meetings as of late - especially when it comes to the public's access to their proceedings.

With the passage of the city's budget, the short period of broadcasting weekly city council meetings has come to an end - With the city now going back to bi-weekly broadcast, which are televised on Time Warner's channel 12.

This bi-weekly policy was implemented shortly after the arrival of new city manager Mark Palesh. While Palesh can make recommendations on how meetings are conducted, how they actually are operated is up to the mayor and members of council. And on this subject all five members of city council, Democrats and Republicans, have frankly failed the taxpayers and voters they serve.

While councilors David Dempsey and Matthew Smith say they want to have all the sessions broadcast, they have not pushed the issue, other than with public comments about keeping the public informed. They have had several opportunities to put on resolutions to force every member of the council to go on record to change this policy - but have not done so.

This is all the stranger for Dempsey who is running for mayor and could put such a resolution on to show he has the ability to lead on an issue, which his opponent, Mayor Timothy Lattimore has largely agreed with, by default, with his silence. By forcing the issue this would allow him to show how a Dempsey administration would be different when it comes to increasing access.

The original reasoning for going to bi-weekly broadcasts was to avoid grandstanding, whether by the speakers at Public Be Heard portions of the meeting or worse, by the mayor and city council. Oddly enough, the lack of such grandstanding during the recent budget process, even with a controversial trash fee, proves that when meetings are run well, such worries can be minimized.

As the nation celebrates its 231st birthday today, the Auburn City Council might find that this is the time to reflect on what drove the men who met in Philadelphia to stake their sacred honor on the simple idea of representative government. While most governments are expanding their access to the public, Auburn has regressed. It is time for them to change this.

Happy Fourth of July and celebrate safely.

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