A Little Decorum Please

I attended the business session of the City Council today. I was there as part of the 311 Oversight Committee who presented an update. I picked up tons of blog material, but the thing that stood out the most to me was the very rude behavior of our elected officials. As the Assistant City Manager over the 311 project began to make his presentation, half the council members simply got up and left the room. The remaining members began chatting amongst themselves like a bunch of 10th graders bored with a lecture on covalent bonding. It’s hard work to get elected. At least I’m working hard! These people go through all the rigors of an election. They tell the voters how badly they want to represent them and what a great job they’ll do. What happens when they get to City Hall? They act like the job is so hard or so boring that they can’t manage to behave in a professional manner for 90 minutes? I see five year olds at church who behave better than what I saw today. Maybe none of the council members have ever had to sit through a two-hour graduate finance lecture. I can assure you I learned to pay very close attention for those two hours. I think I can handle 90 minutes of City business once a week.