Council's big chance

The Baker City Council has been a dysfunctional group the past 4 1/2  months.

But now that voters have decided not to recall Mayor Dennis Dorrah and Councilor Beverly Calder, those two, along with their five colleagues, have an ideal chance to prove something important to their constituents.

Councilors can do so by working together over the next few weeks to pick the city manager who’s best suited to do that most important job in City Hall.

We suspect some residents are skeptical. We don’t blame them.

Dorrah and Calder, along with councilors Aletha Bonebrake and Clair Button, voted on June 9 to fire City Manager Steve Brocato — an action for which the three other councilors had no warning.

Yet that trio — Sam Bass, Andrew Bryan and Milo Pope — then campaigned in favor of the recall.

Those situations, combined with occasional verbal sniping during council meetings this summer, give residents ample reason to wonder whether this group can put the city’s business ahead of its myriad personal grievances.

We’re confident that councilors can do exactly that.

Perhaps we’re idealists. But we’ve seen evidence since Brocato’s firing — the council’s unanimous approval of a controversial property maintenance ordinance, for instance — that councilors’ commitment to their civic duty is strong.

Now’s the time to prove it.