This is ridiculous. The three commissioners should be embarrassed and ashamed. I know I am for having them represent me in county government.

To be so unprofessional, arrogant and unproductive that they have permitted an environment to develop in which a deputy sheriff is needed to maintain order is absurd.

That deputy is not only a position funded by taxpayers’ money, but a trained professional who swore an oath to something greater and vastly more important than keeping three grown men and their staffs from behaving like children on a playground.

I cannot think of one police officer who pursued that profession with the hopes of being a glorified hall monitor with a gun.

All three of these men and their staffs need to apologize to Butler County for their behavior. I don’t care who is more to blame, or who said what. Somebody should be a grown-up and walk away.

I have news for the occupants of the government center’s fifth floor: Nobody gets along with everyone he or she works with. Every office, plant, shop, warehouse and institution has people who don’t get along.

The commissioners are no different.

If any of the commissioners had the tiniest speck of respect for the people they work for or the jobs they hold, they would learn to behave and work in an environment that didn’t require supervision. If they cannot, then I believe all of their wages should be garnished to pay for the sheriff’s deputy forced to watch over them.

And what the three main culprits here fail to understand is that this is completely their own fault. William McCarrier, Dale Pinkerton and Jim Eckstein all share equal blame for this absurdity.

Eckstein’s sole purpose for being elected was because he swore to be a “watchdog” — to look out for misuse of funds and resources. Well, if there is a greater waste of funds and resources than a deputy sheriff being assigned to maintain order in an office of “professionals,” I’m listening.

And, McCarrier and Pinkerton need to look in the mirror and realize that their arrogant, stubborn and condescending nature is what makes Eckstein’s purpose necessary. The same behavior they are displaying now is the same behavior that made Eckstein run for office in the first place.

All three commissioners should be censured. All three should be embarrassed. All three owe the people of Butler County an apology.

And more than anything, everyone on the fifth floor needs to get over themselves. They should get their work done like adults, or we will find people who can.