We sometimes say a candidate for office really hit the ground running.

Auburn’s next mayor, Jonathan LaBonte, seems to be off and running even before hitting the ground.

LaBonte is unopposed in next week’s municipal election, so his victory is assured.

But he has already met with City Council candidates to discuss their expectations for conducting council business after Election Day.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” LaBonte told the Sun Journal, and he’s right.

Auburn has no city manager, following the firing of Glenn Aho last month by the current council.

And, as a group, the council ultimately lost the respect of both citizens and city employees.

It must be acknowledged that the council and manager faced a very difficult task: running a city with rapidly declining revenue.

But this council had a talent for making a bad situation even worse. They lapsed into bitter arguments and stalemates on practically every major issue.

In his interview with the Sun Journal, LaBonte put his finger on the current council’s single biggest problem: a failure to distinguish between policymaking and management.

Councilors are elected to set policies, while the manager and city staff are responsible for carrying out those policies.

“In some cases, we have staff making policies and then implement(ing) them,” LaBonte said.

That may have happened in some cases, but it was usually after an exasperated Aho failed to receive concrete direction from the council.

As we have written before, the operative pattern for the current council has been to endlessly bicker and then issue contradictory orders.

In one bizarre instance in 2010, even the manager’s performance review was delayed for months while the council bickered over how it should be completed.

Two members refused to fill out the review form while another said she didn’t turn it in “because I kept changing my answers.”

In that policymaking vacuum, Aho was left trying to guess the council’s wishes and then fashion a workable plan for the city.

Fortunately, several current councilors are not running for office, and most of the candidates for council openings have stressed working together and better communication as their top priorities.

LaBonte, meanwhile, is eager to establish a new way of doing business.

“I would expect our first meeting to go over the ground rules, in terms of basic decorum, Robert’s Rules, and things that are going to be off limits,” he told the Sun Journal.

“The first meeting is, ‘Here’s how we’re going to work together.’”

Auburn’s current mayor, Dick Gleason, came into office with similarly good intentions. But it is hard for any mayor in a council-manager system to lead people who refuse to be led.

LaBonte has the right attitude, but success will ultimately require a full council determined not to repeat the mistakes of their predecessors.

rrhoades@sunjournal.com

The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.

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