Many hands make light work. On June 27 at a regularly scheduled meeting of the Rome Common Council it was glaringly obvious who those hands are. No longer are the residents of this city afforded the opportunity to address the council before legislation on the agenda is taken up and passed by them.

According to our Charter, the public is afforded five minutes to address the council before the agenda is read and taken to the floor for a vote. Glaringly missing was the opportunity for anyone to speak, and it was even stricken from the record of the regular meeting on the published agenda. Land wholly owned by the citizens of this city was given away for the sum of one dollar, to parties unknown and not named in the legislation.

Open government is key to the success of any democracy. Government without the people, without transparency, operating in a cloak of secrecy is no government at all. The meeting was billed in the Sentinel as a regular session of the Common Council, despite the fact the regular time had been changed to accommodate the mayor’s State of the City Address. It was also billed in as an opportunity to address your concerns and ideas. It was billed to include a question and answer session. None of those things occurred. Do we no longer abide by our Charter? A man’s word is his deed.

If you promise something, you should deliver. If you take an oath to uphold the constitution and the city charter and you do not, you are sitting on your hands and violating the freedoms your swore to uphold.

— Andrew Savoie, 404 N. Madison St.