With half of the Auburn City Council up for election next month, this is an opportunity for the public and the press, to ask the candidates where they stand on a whole host of issues. Here are just five to consider:

• You will likely have to vote on several labor contracts (two fire contracts were approved on Oct. 1) in the next four years. Will you pledge to be consistent?

If you vote for any salary increase will you realize that this comes with a cost and that taxes will likely have to be raised as a result - especially with next year's budget?

Too often members of the council want to be the friends of labor and vote them increases, but don't want to pay for those contracts when it comes to budget time.

Now is the time to pin down candidates, not after they have approved contracts and are making budget decisions.

• Do you support the residency requirement that now exists on the majority of city staff?

Firefighters have not, through state exemption, had to live in the city and the Auburn Police Department negotiated it out in a recent contract. That now leaves top management and the members of the CSEA required to live within city limits.

Setting aside management for a moment, if first responders don't have to live in the city, should clerical and administrative staff?

• The city has now not increased taxes for the third straight year.

Is this good policy? Would you oppose a tax hike in June 2010? No one likes to raise taxes, especially their own, but to keep spending flat for any length of time, without adjusting services (i.e. cuts) or finding new sources of revenue (i.e. a printing press) is almost impossible.

• In this same vein, if you don't want to raise taxes, the city can't cover its current spending and upcoming labor commitments without making changes.

What services, specifically, are you willing to cut?

• City Manager Mark Palesh has now been at City Hall for nearly three-and- a-half years.

Within the next four years, his contract is set to expire. If he wants to renew his deal with the city, would you support him?

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