Petty spats are unbecoming to county officials

Cape Girardeau County residents have grown accustomed to a mostly calm and orderly leadership, thanks to several years of relative harmony among various governmental entities.

We laugh at a St. Louis alderwoman who makes a public spectacle of herself when she needed to go to the restroom rather than risk losing ground on a political position. And we wonder about councils, boards and commissions elsewhere that meet until the wee hours fighting over seemingly clear-cut issues.

We probably could attribute our county's astounding growth and ability to weather economic turbulence in part to a sense of fiscal conservatism and cooperation.

But the calm is being threatened by a spat between the Cape Girardeau County Commission on one side and circuit judges and juvenile officials on the other. This public disagreement seems to be heating up into something more, and the juveniles are in the middle.

It began with a difference of opinion over whether the county needs a new 38-bed juvenile detention center to replace the 10-bed center near downtown Cape Girardeau.

The commissioners say a new center would be an unnecessary $4.3 million expense, because the existing center isn't filled to capacity. The judges and chief juvenile officer insist that a new center is necessary.

Both sides are so convinced that the issue has ended up stalled with the Missouri Judicial Finance Commission, which is considering arguments on both sides.

But the dispute has bled into a more petty matter: the paying of judges' membership dues to a professional organization. The commission balked at doing so and sought the prosecuting attorney's opinion. He sided with the commissioners.

However, the commission already had approved paying the judges' dues as a line item in the current budget and was compelled to hand over the money, just as it has in previous years.

Obviously, it is time to stop the pettiness.

Either this county needs a new juvenile center or it doesn't. And the commissioners and the judges likely know the answer right now.

If we need one, the county certainly has the resources to build one. If not, let's sell the land commissioners purchased a while back for construction of a new center and move on.

And, by all means, don't let this county fall into the morass of bickering that has claimed so many counties, school districts and cities.