The impasse between Sheriff Guy Desjardins and the Androscoggin County commissioners has reached its inevitable crescendo: there are now lawyers involved.

After receiving a legal opinion, Desjardins has moved to hire an additional patrol deputy appropriated in the county budget. The commissioners, according to Chairman Elmer Berry, will respond after conferring with their lawyer. Suits with briefs will inevitably follow.

Deciding who has authority to hire a single deputy, however, won’t resolve underlying problems of county government: it lacks day-to-day, nonpartisan administration, and is shaped by archaic statutes that allow, if not encourage, cronyism and mismanagement.

Commissioners are perhaps the least accountable public officials. With four-year terms, they preside like senators, and Maine law lacks mechanisms to remove them from office. They meet during daylight hours, out of public sight, to manage taxpayer millions.

These flaws in the system require reform, and voters in Androscoggin County should demand a county charter to institute rule on the chaos that’s reigning. With a charter, citizens can draft basic guidelines for their government, including deciding which positions remain elected, or appointed.

A charter could also provide for hiring a professional manager, which would alleviate the day-to-day pressure on a part-time Board of Commissioners to run the county. A charter commission failed in Androscoggin County in 1991, however, and recent talks have failed to make one materialize.

Yet, as proven this session, the Legislature is disinterested in changing counties, yet people seem apathetic about the commission, as evidenced by the lack of candidates to compete for seats on the board.

If change won’t come from the top, it must rise from a groundswell of the people. Establishing a county charter is a bureaucratic process – it starts with action by the commission, then a referendum to create a charter commission, then a referendum on a proposed charter.

Though unwieldy, a charter is worthy. It’s the best chance the citizens of Androscoggin County have for altering county government to its liking.

Chairman Berry has voiced his support for a charter in the past. In 2003, he said, “I think if we seriously consider this we would be doing a service to the taxpayers of Androscoggin County and trying to save them money.” We urge Berry, as an act of good faith toward a weary public, to take up this mantle again.

By doing so, commissioners can prove strong leadership exists within county government. And it would recognize, as so many around Androscoggin County now do, there are fundamental flaws in the makeup of county government.

Ignoring problems won’t make them disappear. The public has largely ignored the county for years; it’s still here.

A charter commission is how to change it.