By Jimm Roberts, Alexandria (File photo)

To the editor:
Congratulations to Mayor Allison Silberberg for proposing to establish an ethical standard to which our elected officials must adhere, and for choosing now — when there are no ethical conflicts or controversies — to design and implement this standard. Who in their right mind would oppose it?

If there was ever an instance in which city councilors should keep quiet and let the public they serve postulate the standard, it is now. And if there was ever a time in which city councilors should stand fore square for an ethical standard, it’s now. To do otherwise would suggest they were looking for escape clauses or wiggle room to justify less than admirable conduct in their capacity as elected representatives.

My only complaint is that Silberberg wanted the public to dedicate part of their Saturday to argue in person that it’s wise and reasonable to promulgate a standard of ethics for elected representatives. It would be better to appeal to the citizenry to send emails to the all-Democrat city council.

No citizen should have to set aside all or part of a precious weekend day to tell city council to support what is a patently reasonable initiative. A simple message in an email to each council member should have been sufficient.