As a voter of Auburn, I want to know why, after receiving one of the largest state grants to support the good and sound work of the Citizens Commission on Lewiston-Auburn Cooperation , the Auburn City Council and City Manager Glenn Aho, along with Mayor John Jenkins have failed to quickly move for implementation of the $2.7 million in savings between the two cities that the commission identified.

The work really started in the L/A Together effort 15 years ago. Some progress was made, and on that basis, the cities received the more recent state support to continue work. It’s embarrassing that having been state leaders in such cost reduction work, I now see blatant stalling. The situation gets more ridiculous by the day as the national and state economies fall ever deeper into recession.

Peter Garcia has dedicated significant time to collaborative efforts between Lewiston and Auburn to save and strengthen resources. He deserves a medal for his dedication and patience, but we can’t expect to benefit from his expertise much longer if the major players won’t cooperate.

Clearly, these economic times call for dramatic changes in how we all do business. Residents are lucky to have the thoughtful groundwork of the joint commission members and some city officials. We’d be even luckier if we had courageous and innovative leaders in Auburn who cared more about taxpayers/citizens and less about fiefdoms.

Those are strong words, but I’m pretty fed up, and doubt that I’m alone.

Betty D. Robinson, Auburn