There’s trouble in recall land. The troops are demoralized, and the leaders are out of sight.

Chalk it up to the holidays or the realization that recalling the majority of the Auburn City Council is not practical, either way the effort is running into difficulty.

One of the leading organizers of the recall is out of the picture, unable to be reached by the Sun Journal or by others who would like wholesale change on the council. And efforts to collect signatures appear to be falling far short of what’s necessary to put a recall on the ballot.

There’s a lot of dissatisfaction in Auburn that boiled over when revaluation notices were mailed to city residents late last year. The notices contained errors and predicted sizable tax increases for many households. Then, when a crowd of as many as 1,000 residents demanded that the city back out of its plans to build a new parking garage and the council refused, the recall effort was born.

Recall is an overly blunt tool in democracy and should be used only in the most extreme circumstances. A disagreement about public investment – which we believe will be good for downtown development – doesn’t cross the threshold for recall.

While the recall is stumbling, United Citizens of Auburn, another residents’ group born from the fumbled revaluation, continues to organize. Members of the group rightly voted not to take part in the recall effort, but remain critical of city government. UCA, however, is taking a more measured course of action that could alter the political dynamics in the city.

The effort to recall the mayor and majority of the city council should end. The entire slate will be up for election this year, anyway. Recallers would likely find that they could have a greater – and more beneficial – impact on city governance by putting their efforts toward other pursuits.