Scrap the invitations

Baker City’s attempt to decide which residents ought to meet the four candidates for city manager leaves us with an unpleasant taste in our mouths.

The bitter flavor of elitism.

We don’t object to city officials, including city councilors, inviting people to introduce themselves to, and chat with, the four finalists.

But by designating the series of gatherings earlier this week as by invitation only, the city strongly implied that everyone else was, if not specifically excluded, then certainly was not equally welcome.

That latter group, by the way, includes more than 99 percent of the city’s residents.

Whoever ends up taking the city manager job will, we’re certain, run across at least a few of those citizens.

We’re not suggesting here that picking a city manager should be an exercise in pure democracy.

The manager’s job is a hired position, not an elected one. And the city charter clearly gives the seven councilors — the people voters do get to choose — the sole authority to hire, and fire, the manager.

Still and all, it’s useful for people interested in the job, while they’re visiting the city, to meet someone other than city councilors and city employees.

Similarly, it’s worthwhile to let city residents who have an interest in the process shake a few hands if they’re so inclined.

The simplest solution obviously is to schedule a public event — one for which invitations are neither issued nor needed.

Which is precisely what the city did in October 2003, when city manager finalists Jerry Gillham and John Bingham came to town.

This isn’t an either/or proposition, in any case.

In 2003 the city, in addition to the public gathering, also invited about 20 people to have lunch with Bingham and Gillham.

The bottom line here is that the city manager will oversee an operation that spends several million dollars of our money each year.

Just seven of us have a vote on who gets that job.

But everybody else should at least have an equal opportunity to participate, albeit in an unofficial way, in the process.