Tuesday, two previously absent Picayune City Councilors returned to duty by attending the Council meeting.

At the end of that meeting, they spoke about their reasoning behind their two-month hiatus.

Ultimately, Larry Breland and Lynn Bogan Bumpers said they “took a stance” by not coming to the meetings due to a perceived slight against them and their constituents.

According to Breland, several attempts by he and Bumpers to have improvements completed within their precincts were all denied by his fellow Councilors, while work took place regularly in other parts of the city.

Bumpers said during a previous meeting that had someone ran against her in the most recent election, her inability to have improvements completed within her precinct due to her perceived lack of cooperation with the rest of the Council would have been cause for her replacement.

It’s hard to understand how not showing up to meetings would have solved any of these Councilor’s problems.

There’s only one way to do a job; that’s to show up.

And, there’s only one way to work as a team; that too is by attending meetings, sharing ideas in a civil manner and avoiding using excuses for not being able to get things done.

If there is truth to the claims presented by Breland and Bumpers Tuesday night, then the rest of the Council should work harder to ensure that work takes place evenly across the city.

But if the statements made by these two vocal Councilors holds no water, then maybe another method of trying to get improvements completed in their precincts should be employed other than missing meetings and placing the blame on others.

Because, as we’ve said before, you can’t win the game if you’re sitting on the bench.