“Beware,” Henry David Thoreau once said, “of all enterprises that require new clothes.”

There’s nothing pastoral about the Auburn City Council, though, nor Mayor-Elect Richard Gleason’s encouragement of his council colleagues to have pride in their appearance. He’s been asking them to respect the city’s standing dress and meeting conduct codes.

This has rankled some councilors, namely Dan Herrick and Mike Farrell, who think Gleason’s pursuit of pressed and polished has been tailored for them. Herrick has jokingly (we think) threatened to wear bib overalls and a straw hat to an upcoming meeting in protest, like he’s fresh from the cornfield from Hee Haw. Farrell thinks these city policies don’t apply to him as a councilor.

“I don’t feel that I am an employee of the city of Auburn,” he told the paper recently. “If I come in to the meeting with my clothes all torn up and my
shoes on the wrong feet, am I going to get written up?”

No, but he would be laughed at. (Though it would be funny to see appearance ticketed like overtime parking. Talk about  fashion police.) Farrell is, however, an official representative of the citizens of Auburn. If he respects them, he should show it by respecting his appearance while in the chambers. Gleason’s request does seem sensible; he wants councilors to dress professionally while doing the business of the public.

Why is this even a question?

If one looks back through history, garments and government have always gone together. A distinguished Roman senator would likely have been jeered off the floor of the Forum if their toga was in tatters or their sandals were soiled, for example. The connection between holding office and public appearance is as old as representative government itself.

Clothes may not make the man (or woman), but a little decorum never hurt anyone either.

For Auburn, Gleason is not seeking anything extravagant: not necessarily shirts and neckties, he says, rather an effort on behalf of councilors to be presentable. Of all the requests he could make of councilors, this seems the easiest to heed.

So Thoreau’s advice, in this instance, should be ignored. Auburn city councilors, particularly when starting a new working relationship, should not engage in acts of civil disobedience over attire. There are much bigger issues to address ahead. And really, Gleason isn’t asking for that much.

He could have asked for togas.

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