Wastefulness was a central campaign theme of two of the victors in the recent Bend City Council election.

Councilor-elect Nathan Boddie said Bend has “been on a reckless spending spree” and residents were stuck with the bill.

Councilor-elect Barb Campbell pledged to be careful with the city’s money and “pinch every penny.”

And yet now, even before the new council takes office, city attorneys and staff have been bogged down in a wasteful legal fight over Councilor-elect Casey Roats’ residency.

Roats sold his home and moved temporarily outside the city limits into a home owned by his parents while he built a new home. Lawyers, councilors and councilors-elect have all demonstrated that they are fully capable of debating Roats’ residency for days. Is that truly making Bend better?

One legal challenge has been dismissed. A new legal challenge is expected to be filed, as of our deadline. The initial challenge was filed on behalf of Campbell’s partner, Foster Fell.

So we were pleased to read in Wednesday’s Bulletin that Boddie would like the new council to focus its efforts and the city’s staff time on the critical challenges that face the city. Boddie and Campbell have concerns about Roats’ residency and that this council is choosing to decide the issue.

But Boddie said: “Going forward, the next council will hopefully get on with its business and not be too distracted by this.”

In all the discussions about Roats’ unusual residency situation, we haven’t heard any serious challenge to Roats’ ability to provide quality representation on the council. Councilor Doug Knight, one of the two members of the council who voted against Roats being qualified to serve, even made a special point of praising Roats’ potential to be an excellent councilor.

We know one person’s wasteful spending is another’s legal necessity. And that central to Boddie’s and Campbell’s campaign concern about wastefulness was infrastructure spending, not legal spending.

But it’s hard to see how having to pour more city money and time into a fight over Roats’ residency is anything but a wasteful distraction.