The Mercer Island City Council thoroughly studied, vetted, heard ample public opinion, commissioned a traffic engineering study and a citizens group to study the Island Crest Corridor — all of this completed and known by early May 2009. The Council was scheduled to make a decision in late May or early June of this year, and with no public explanation or apparent reasoning, postponed the decision until December 2009 — after election day.

When a contentious issue forces an elected official to take an unpopular position before an election, that is called courageous leadership and conviction. If that same position is allowed to be sheltered until after an election, do we call that “politics” or cowardice?

What did the Council learn in the last six months that it didn’t already know in May? Did the four who voted for the road diet also support a delay on Council action until December? I hope not.

John Morse