City council approves more ordinances to refrain from enforcing, declares victory, and returns home to carve the Christmas spam.

Last night's final city council meeting of 2013 is amply covered by Grace Schneider in the C-J. Surely she's cursing the misfortune of drawing the short straw.

Of Vicki "Erika" Denhart's favored council seat holders, Kevin Zurschmiede and Diane Benedetti were absent. It's an unscientific assertion, but I'll reiterate: Has there been such a recurring level of council absenteeism in the past decade?

I think not. Because gin was sounding far better than spin, I wasn't there, either. Then again, I wasn't elected to serve, which implies clocking in on a regular basis.

Shirley Baird was present, and offered an ordinance to suppress aggressive panhandling. It was passed on its first two readings, as was the port authority enabling legislation. The latter seems justified, at least until we see the strikingly poor caliber of usual suspects appointed to its governing board, and are duly repelled. As for panhandling, it brings to mind an array of stirring council memories, including porch furniture bans, prohibitions on novelty lighters and heroic objections to non-binding resolutions.

Really?

I'm not sure why non-binding resolutions get all the attention. Non-binding ordinances are far more common in this town.