If your car's back end needed work, would you start on the front? Of course not.

Likewise, the Augusta Commission needs some extensive body work -- but not on Joe Bowles' end.

The certified public accountant and Aquinas and Citadel graduate is consistently one of the most reasonable, sensible and productive of the 10 Augusta commissioners.

Last week, Bowles helped avert a racially divisive commission vote when he broke ranks and hammered out a compromise to name the new judicial center after a local civil rights lawyer.

At a forum Tuesday night, Bowles was practically the only candidate in three commission races to answer questions directly and candidly.

For instance, when asked whether they would cut services to help erase the city's $8.6 million deficit, most candidates carried on as if they were on the set of the show So You Think You Can Dance . Bowles didn't: The city needs to consider furloughs and layoffs just like every other business or government, Bowles maintains.

Moreover, whereas most candidates stepped around the thought of specific budget cuts like land mines, Bowles suggests privatizing the municipal golf course through a lease arrangement; privatizing the transit service; and reducing trash pickup to once a week.

As a nuts-and-bolts CPA, you can bet Bowles will find other areas to cut too.

When challenged about the trauma of furloughs and layoffs, Bowles quite rightly points out that he's not elected to represent just 2,000 city employees; he's there to look after the interests of 200,000 residents. He does an outstanding job of it, too.

We hope voters of District 3 agree and send him back in the current election that ends Tuesday.