To the editor:

By independently initiating the effort to craft an ordinance establishing the rules and order of business for Crestwood’s Board of Aldermen, Ward 3 Alderman Grant Mabie failed to recognize that he is only one of eight members of a legislative body.

Mr. Mabie correctly noted that the Board of Aldermen has never adopted its own rules and order of business — as required by the city Charter. But rather than bring this concern to his fellow board members for direction on how the board, as a legislative body, would collectively address this oversight, Mr. Mabie began the legislative process without their input.

As part of his proposed rules for the Board of Aldermen, Mr. Mabie included the stipulation that any “two members of the Board of Aldermen may request that the city administrator cause an ordinance or resolution to be prepared for placement on the agenda, provided that such preparation does not incur additional legal fees [emphasis added].”

One has to wonder why Mr. Mabie did not apply this rule to himself when he de-cided to initiate work on the ordinance.

Is it because he believes that his own good opinion on what codes need to be changed gives him a green light to act without a public vote from the board? One also has to wonder why the rest of the aldermen did not seek a proper explanation from Mr. Mabie regarding his failure to ask for their endorsement before initiating work on code changes.

Perhaps once the board members see the $5,000 price tag for the legal fees associated with Mr. Mabie’s pursuit of the code changes, they may find a reason to question any of his future efforts to update the city codes without prior board approval.

The irony could not be more obvious: Mr. Mabie, without a second alderman, caused an ordinance to be prepared and in so doing incurred additional legal fees — precisely what the aforementioned stipulation in his bill aims to prevent.

Martha Duchild

Crestwood