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“Keep your eye on the ball.”
To put it bluntly, that’s our advice to the Ely City Council as members face a growing tug, both from the outside and now perhaps from within, to weigh in on matters outside their control, outside their authority, even outside their realm.
The council’s decision this week to publicize a city “values statement” twice each year is symbolic at best, and at worst it can be argued that it’s a “virtue signaling” exercise of some sort.
A council member said as much this week, offering that a motion to issue a city press release highlighting a values statement - adopted back in 2019 - was in response to a citizen’s plea two weeks earlier.
That plea oozed national politics and called on the council to make a statement of support in favor of a grab bag of groups who they feel will be ostracized or harmed because of the change at the top in national leadership.
Every four years there’s a presidential election. One side wins, one side loses and the chips fall as they may.
If one side or another overreach there are elections every four years at the national level, and every two years at the Congressional level, to rein one side or another in. The pendulum swings just as it has for over 200 years in these United States.
The timing of the request, that the city reaffirm its values statement now, comes with a thinly-veiled suggestion that current happenings warrant the city to take a stand.
That’s dangerous territory and puts the city in the middle of a national political dispute.
History has a way of repeating itself and those who have been here awhile may be apt to remember what happened in 2003.
Then, at the urging of some local residents, the city council took a stand against U.S. military action in Iraq.
It was a no-win situation for the council, who clearly didn’t win.
Over a span of a couple of weeks, Ely made state and national news, residents responded in outrage and the phone lines lit up at City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce from visitors who threatened to cancel their vacations to Ely.
Businesses suffered, the community was divided, the motion was ultimately rescinded and little good came from the council’s needless decision to weigh in on a divisive national issue.
While not to the level of the Iraq war resolution, the council is taking a step in that direction by veering away from its domain and wasting time on whether or not the city values statement needs to be reaffirmed.
The statement speaks for itself and clearly reflects both the community and its leaders, saying: “The city of Ely is committed to be a community that welcomes and values diversity. We will work to be a place where all people, citizens and visitors alike, will feel safe and confident that the city of Ely respects the rights and dignity of all people.”
Issuing or reissuing the statement in response to the lead story on MSNBC, or Fox News for that matter, is needless and pointless.
Fixing potholes, making sure the roads are plowed, maintaining our infrastructure and keeping taxes at an acceptable level are all the domain of Ely city officials. So too are long-term initiatives ranging from economic and community development and addressing quality of life matters ranging from housing to child care.
Taking a position when one group or another is dissatisfied with an election result or the consequences of an election?
That’s a hard pass, and that’s what our council should say to this and other virtue-signaling requests that come their way.
