Two gatherings on their first day in office gave a strong indication of how the new Butler County board of commissioners will conduct business.

At the first session, a swearing-in ceremony in the packed courtroom of President Judge Thomas Doerr, the new commissioners — Leslie Osche, Kim Geyer and Kevin Boozel — exchanged embraces all around.

It’s hard to imagine their predecessors hugging each other. Outgoing commissioners Bill McCarrier and Dale Pinkerton are from an earlier, more stoic generation not given to men hugging; and both would struggle greatly just to shake the hand of their counterpart, Jim Eckstein.

The embraces portend a more congenial board. So do the new commissioners’ expressions of mutual respect and trust — characteristics to be found in short supply over the past four years in the commissioners’ conference room.

Osche, the former executive director of the United Way of Butler County and now the commissioners’ chairwoman, remarked how all three commissioners have complementary experience “that will serve us well.”

They will need to work well together to fend off what some officials have called a looming fiscal crisis.

At the second session, the organizational meeting, the commissioners presented their agenda of four priorities regarding the 2016 budget adopted by the outgoing board. The $150.7 million budget would drain a reserve fund and require a 3-mill property tax increase to plug a $4.4 million operating deficit.

Their priorities are cash flow, revenue confirmation, restoring county fund balances and restoring the county’s operating and capital reserves.

The primary author of the current budget was chief clerk Amy Wilson. The commissioners said Monday that Wilson no longer is a county employee and appointed an interim chief clerk.

While they offered no details about Wilson’s termination, the implication of the commissioners’ second priority makes clear their dissatisfaction with the budget. Osche said the commissioners and department heads will work to make sure departments’ projected budgets are more in line with their actual expenses, and that the commissioners themselves are committed to reducing their office’s expenses by $100,000.

If widespread padding is found in the budget — the commissioners seem confident they can find it, then at least some of the 3-mill tax hike can be erased through spending cuts.

The commissioners also pledged to include Treasurer Diane Marburger and Controller Ben Holland on budget issues. Holland welcomed the gesture, saying that in the past two years there has been a toxic relationship between the commissioner’s office and his office, which he said is not conducive to good work.

The new board is off to a good start, even though the financial circumstance hijacked, for now, any other agenda they might have preferred to pursue.

But as Geyer put it, “It’s an exciting time to lead. When this looks like adversity, we see it as an opportunity.”

Let’s all hope the new commissioners remain focused on opportunity, and that they make the most of it.

—TAH