To the Editor:

I am troubled. I can't fathom whether our council members are aloof by design or by nature. Whatever the reason, apart from Silberberg, their collective disdain for the residents they purportedly represent strikes me as arrogance pure and simple.

But they are not beyond detecting community discontent. To placate it, an enormous amount of city staff time and more of our money was used to concoct a manual explaining how we the citizenry can interact with them. What chutzpah.

They should write one for themselves explaining the methods an elected representative should employ to gauge the taxpayers desires and concerns. Come on! We pay them to work for us. Creating a manual telling us how to work for them is symptomatic of a serious disconnect in our body politic.

For example, when was the last time you heard of one of our rulers visiting a neighborhood civic association simply to listen? My favorite example why we need term limits, Del Pepper, resides within walking distance to several, including mine.

If she's ever attended any community meeting in recent years, then it's news to me. Her "Just close the curtains" remark in response to community opposition to lighted tennis courts is atypical of an arrogant ruler; not an empathetic representative.

On the other hand, I can understand our council members comporting themselves as overlords. It's much easier to get things done if you have supreme authority to do what you want rather than sort from the babbling voices what the community wants. But if we are to have a democracy, then let's make it a good one.

To invigorate our hobbled democracy in Alexandria, it's necessary to truly empower the people. Toward that worthy end, cashier the "at large" system by which council members are elected. Replace it with the format used in 99.9 percent of America whereby voters elect a council member from their communities

Also, it would be very modern and inexpensive, certainly less costly than the goofy How To Work With Us manual our city council members created, to establish an online polling process to plumb community sentiment.

For contentious issues, especially when matters of density begin percolating, on online poll would permit us residents to become informed of issues early on and allow us to register our opinion in the form of a non-binding vote.

There could be any number of topics at any given time posted online. Their sole purpose would be educating the public so they may make informed online votes enabling the elected to be responsive to the views of the people. Isn't that what democracy is all about?

Jimm Roberts

Alexandria