Auburn City Manager Mark Palesh's proposed budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year includes making the city's corporation counsel job a single, full-time position.

The city has been operating with part-time attorneys since the departure of Thomas Leone after his election to county court judge.

The new plan would mean hiring one person to be the city's attorney and also hiring a full-time paralegal for the office.

Though the part-time attorneys have been doing good work, city department heads have had fewer opportunities than they require when they need advice, and Auburn taxpayers deserve to have a full-time attorney to turn to for questions and an office in city hall that's staffed five days per week.

It's time to move ahead and make this a full-time position again, but it needs to be done the right way.

Because oversights or mistakes at this level can - and do - cost cities millions of dollars, the new attorney can't be allowed to learn on the job.

The taxpayers deserve to have only the most qualified attorneys considered for the job, so becoming the city's attorney means having first gained experience in the intricacies of municipal law.

Just as importantly, politics needs to kept out of the selection process.

It's no secret that some members of the city council have a candidate in mind, but this position cannot be allowed to turn into a political appointment.

And we don't want to hear any talk - as we have in the past - that the new person has to have local ties. The argument that someone with a “personal stake” in the future of the city will do a better job is often used by those looking to hire a friend or, more often, a political associate.

The city needs a full-time attorney, and the person who gets the job must be hired for only the right reasons.