We've said our goodbyes to former County Administrator Anthony J. Schembri, the latest in a series of county commission-vs.-county staff casualties.

He joins June Fischer, Tom Dick and Richard Wesch on the pile of recently discarded county employees.

We were promised a "new day" during the first day of the current administration, yet there has been no evidence of that. And, as with past administrations, the County Administrator has ended up as yet another political carcass along the roadside.

The problem may not be so much in the picking of an administrator as being able to work with the person chosen. Once in office, the administrator has, in recent times, always ended up sinking in quicksand.

Dealing with an administrator is not the only county shortcoming, either.

The county commission, apparently unable to generate its own vision for the county, hired someone to help them figure one out at $100 an hour. One would think a vision of the county would have been present during the political campaigns on the way to the chairs at the county commission table.

It is not only a vision that the commission lacks, it is the inability to choose the right person for County Administrator, or to work with that person once he or she is installed. The clash of egos, public miscues and behind-the-scenes bickering has spilled over into the public domain. The tension in the last few county commission meetings before the resignation of Schembri was palpable - just as it was with other administrators before their departures.

County commissioners have publicly said they want to move forward, but their deeds belie their words. This is not a time to see whether the commission or administrator has the most testosterone. It is, rather, a time the commission learns that the commission-staff connection is not a dictatorship, as has been painfully evident even in commission meetings.

Commissioners need to be participatory, not divisive, if they are to realize their hope of moving this county forward. Otherwise, the position of County Administrator will always be one of a moving target, and eventually end up dumped at the "county landfill."

Commissioners, if you really want to usher in a "new day," then let the sun rise on your cooperation - with one another and county staff. Then your vision and choice of administrator will have meaning.