If an elected official wants to “take it outside,” they should, and never come back.

Frank DiConzo, a Rumford selectman, made this unvarnished threat to a firefighter earlier this week, amid a heated meeting about department costs. DiConzo accused firefighters of abusing overtime, and believed one in the audience was smiling about it, which triggered this embarrassing outburst.

Rumford had its share of tempestuous politics last year, but DiConzo’s gambit digs the cellar deeper.

All of this indicates a leadership vacuum in the city now exists, following the departure of former Town Manager Steve Eldridge. Though maligned, Eldridge did act as a community fulcrum (and, some may say, a target).

Since his ouster, however, another strong centerpiece hasn’t emerged. His qualified and affable successor, Jim Doar, has barely been given the chance, and arrived being warned – by letter from an anonymous person – he was “making the mistake of [his] life” by “quitting [his] current job and uproot[ing] [his] family to step into this mess.”

A self-described “good government fanatic,” Doar promised to communicate with the public, which he’s done well by diligently maintaining a blog, “The Open Doar,” on the city’s Web site to explain items and answer questions.

But since then, a majority of selectmen quizzically ordered Doar to record minutes of their meetings, a clerical job unfitting for an administrator who should be assisting selectmen during discussions of policy, not taking notes about them. In doing so, the board looks like it’s handicapping Doar’s ability to develop the leadership qualities his job entails.

This would be mitigated if selectmen were acting visionary, but their meetings in recent weeks have been marred by clashes. Talk about committee assignments last month, for example, also led to angry outbursts, prior to DiConzo’s amazing action during the overtime discussion.

These sideshows beg for leadership to quell such departures from the people’s work, hopefully even before they begin. Angry asides shouldn’t continue to interrupt Rumford governance.

The city needs calm and continuity, not continued calamity.

Continual incidents paint a disturbing picture of Rumford’s weakened leadership. Strange decisions, disharmony and acrimony are seemingly preventing the city from setting, and keeping to, a cogent, progressive agenda.

New administrators and selectmen should provide opportunities to trash perceptions of the city’s business-as-usual approach as divisive. Having officials hurling fistfight-invites around, however, is a step backward.

There’s been enough of those already.

Now, who will take Rumford forward?