From the time these words are written to the time they reach your eyes, we hope this matter of resignation becomes moot, but we won’t hold our breath. The three San Diego City Council members indicted by a federal grand jury must resign immediately for the public good, regardless of their presumed innocence. That’s because the councilmen cannot defend themselves, conduct the city’s business and do either one very well at the same time.

They were elected to do a very good job of conducting the city’s business and nothing less.

The enormous distraction this case has visited upon City Hall already has ground important matters to a sputter. Elected officials and their staff are spending unconscionable time not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. The honorable mayor, a former judge who is not at all implicated in any of the allegedly criminal activity, has spent hours, if not collectively days, being briefed by prosecutors, hearing out the accused as a sympathetic friend and as their leader, ruminating with his staff, and expressing angst before the press. And he doesn’t even have to ponder his own defense.

Imagine the panic of the three accused councilmen, who, to paraphrase Michael Zucchet, are in the fight of their lives. Virtually all their waking hours must be spent strategizing their own defense; anything less and they’d be doing themselves and their families a disservice. Pondering a about life in prison is itself a distraction from their personal need to strategize defense. Anger at themselves, anger at the Las Vegas interests who enticed them, and anger at prosecutors who bugged them is just so much more wasted time and energy. It’s a wonder they can even sleep without medication.

This very column is a regrettable distraction.

The councilmen must resist their inclination to resist resignation. They and their supporters must understand that the public good — cleaning the council of the accused, replacing them and getting on with the city’s business, a matter that could be accomplished in 30 to 60 days — is much more important than their rights and desires to remain in office while they fight the charges. If their innocence is upheld in court, they can always run for election later.

Councilmen Michael Zucchet, Charles Lewis and Ralph Inzunza are innocent until proven otherwise, but they do not possess the moral authority to chill the City Council’s work flow to cold molasses. These three men can help San Diegans get beyond the situation quickly and show some high moral character, or they can continue to drag San Diego down. We pray for their right decisions, thank them for their public service and will withhold judgment regarding their activities involving the strip joints until the justice process unfolds. What a shame.