City Treasurer Jerry Hudlow highlighted the words“lean” and “efficient” before adding a new one: “responsible.”

“What happens when you don’t have responsible government is that government asks its citizens to pay more,” Hudlow said Monday. “Since we are a responsible government, we will not be asking our citizens to pay any more.”

He held up a ball cap and passed it around to the council members. Seven of eight council seats wereoccupied, with only Gary Townzen absent, but only the Finance Committee’s attendance was required. All seven put $1 into Hudlow’s hat, and Buddy Wright added a second. The point, supposedly, was that Hudlow was illustrating what the city would not be doing to its residents ...