Sherwin Lee’s comments in the Jan. 20 issue (Council should listen to transit commuters) prompts these comments from a former local elected official and civil engineer.

Lee is correct when he states that the council should listen to transit users. The council should listen to all citizens that wish to avail themselves of public participation opportunities. Where Lee errs is with the assumption that the council should only consider the transit users, or other public participation.

In a democratic republic such as ours, the public has the right to make its views known to the decision-makers. Those decision-makers have the responsibility to hear the public and consider their input.

However, as decision-makers elected by the entire community to consider what is best for the entire community now and in the future, they are obligated to consider all information at their disposal, not just the public input. This often means that the final decision is contrary to the public input record, usually due to other non-public information.

Roger Allington, Bellevue