Council members have let us down

To the editor:

When a person is elected or appointed to a position, we expect them to respect the wishes of the citizens and attend all Portland City Council meetings.

This has not been the case for several members of Portland City Council.

The council members are expected to attend the 24 called meetings. In 2018, the council had four meetings canceled due to lack of an agenda. During 2018, one member failed to attend seven of the 20 meetings. Another member failed to attend five of the 20 meetings. Two missed four meetings, another missed three and one missed one while one member missed none.

So far this year, there have been nine meetings and the worst 2018 violator has already missed five of the nine meetings while the next worst violator has missed three of nine meetings, or one-third of the meetings.

These people ask or are asking for your votes and state they will do their best. If this is the best they can do, we do not need them. They have failed to vote on many decisions.

If they have jobs that get in the way of attending the council meetings, I highly recommend they resign their position or withdraw from the election and let us find people who care about what is happening in Portland. They apparently don’t care, and I don’t care what they think or say.

Lately, we have seen some of the most stupid decisions that have prevented a good businessman from purchasing the older Sheller-Globe south building. Except for one error, this man has provided all that was asked and lots more and is still. Time after time he was told he will or must wait while the so-called city fathers and mothers of Portland get off their duffs and do business.

To the voting citizens, please, do not re-elect these people that fail to have our interest at heart. We pay these people a reported $3,522.92 annually, and many times the meetings last only 15 to 30 minutes. If they last only 15 minutes, we would be paying them $259.07 per hour for meetings, and if they lasted 30 minutes it would be $222.06 per hour.

What a job, an excellent-paying job, and it appears that some members of council don’t have to attend very often. They still get paid for not attending.

Let’s see if these people will do the right thing. If they don’t, you will quickly see they don’t care, except for the money.

Jim Sanders

Portland