For the past year The Covington News has covered the Porterdale City Council with much disappointment. In that time we have watched the city dismiss a capable city clerk and downtown manager as well as run off a dedicated city council member and now a city manager who has worked for the city for more than a decade.

 The city council meetings are filled with in-council bickering and inefficiencies. A few months ago members decided not to expand their meeting schedule to two meetings a month, yet because of their inability to discuss issues and vote effectively, they have resorted to special called meetings nearly every week. They have spent large amounts of time discussing minor issues such as a pants ordinance rather than tackling how to pay off their thousands of dollars of debt.

 A complaint of City Manager Tom Fox in his resignation was that he was unable to do his job. Many times our reporters have watched Fox being chastised for not acting on a council decree when that task was never voted on by the council.

 The only word to accurately describe the Porterdale City Council is dysfunctional.

 Council member Arline Chapman released a statement following Fox’s resignation urging the citizens of Porterdale not to elect someone with a personal agenda to the council, but rather someone with leadership experience who has a genuine interest in the well being of this once vibrant mill town.

 On an online poll posted to www.covnews.com, we asked "do you approve of the job the Porterdale City Council is doing?" As of press time, only one poll taker has responded yes.

 Please attend the next regularly scheduled Porterdale council meeting on Dec. 1 to witness what goes on there.