Grauer: As for the councilmen light …
Letter to the editor
Aspen taxpayers should demand a partial refund of salary back to the city from the two fledging council members who continue to refuse to do their full jobs.
Not a peep about a change of heart came from Sam Rose or Bill Guth at subsequent council meetings about their norm-busting reluctance and refusal to participate on citizen boards and commissions.
Both may make some local history — but not in a good way. They would be the first elected officials in my memory, from Aspen to Rifle in the past 25 years, to dodge their expected responsibilities.
The council should change the pay scale to reflect the workload: council member “light,”at 75% of pay, and council member “heavy,” at 125%.
Since they knew that they did not intend to meet the normal responsibilities of the job, they should have informed voters during their election campaigns of this material fact.
It was unethical not to make this disclosure, so that voters could make a fully-informed choice of council member candidates. Their glaring failure calls into question the validity of their election.
Bernard Grauer
Basalt