A public hearing to discuss the City of McAlester's five-year capital improvement plan at a special meeting of the McAlester City Council ended in less than five minutes with literally no member of the public in attendance.

This is not good, because the issue the public was supposed to discuss was an important one: The five year capital improvement fiscal plan for budget years 2019-2020 through 2023-2024. You would think at least one member of the public would show up.

The words: "Seeing no one from the public...literally." drew laughter from the other city council members. In other business, the council declared a vacancy in Ward 5 and set interviews to fill the vacancy for next week so the new member could be installed before the next City Council meeting.

Hopefully, someone - anyone - will show up for that.