Cheers and jeers from around the news:

• Jeers to the Lewiston and Auburn city councils. Repressed frustrations between them – and among their members – exploded into finger-pointing, statement-reading, pen-tossing and accusation-flying.

We support collaboration between the cities. Yet after Tuesday’s catharsis in Lewiston, in which councilors from both cities aired grievances about who really killed joint services, we’re changing our opinion. The cities should stop talking, except when necessary.

The mistrust and dislike between them has boiled over. There’s nothing to be gained from more dialogue. Playing the blame game now about joint services is insulting, to say the least.

Auburn killed it. Lewiston let it die. The councils missed what was always there: a blueprint for saving taxpayers almost $3 million. That’s the real shame.

Screaming about it won’t bring those savings back. Political courage might, but as this week showed, these councils have only bared backbone when fighting among themselves, instead of for the interests of their constituents.

• Jeers to the councilors who walked out of Thursday’s Lewiston budget workshop in a huff. City councilors Betty Dube and Denis Theriault were elected to represent their wards in the meetings, not by leaving them. They reached their thresholds, understandably.

Now, they must cool off and come back.

Nobody gets their own way in politics. Nobody is more important, nor above, the process. The grandstander – regardless of their reasoning – isn’t working to get things done.

Dube and Theriault had their moment. They shouldn’t have more, or they should reconsider their service. If they can’t take the hard times, voters can find councilors who can.

• Jeers to Lewiston City Council President Tom Peters, for forgetting that the appearance of impropriety is the same as the real thing. Peters made no secret about his open-meeting policy at his law office; unfortunately, this runs counter to the spirit of Maine’s open-meeting laws.

Peters maintains the meetings were not attempts to circumvent the public, and he has stopped them. That’s the right move. They added to the bad atmosphere around the council. From inside that room, it was a conversation. From afar, it was a conspiracy.

These meetings should never happen again.

• Cheers to the fresh start. As much as we supported joint services, the councils shot that thoroughbred dead. No sense to keep kicking it. Auburn needs to work on its alternative plans for city services, as espoused by City Manager Glenn Aho and Mayor John Jenkins.

Lewiston’s council needs to act like it’s the first day again. Find some common ground to trod upon – the budget or strategic plan are good chances. The city needs councilors who are unified, not in thought, but in their dedication to residents and the job of policy-making.

After this week, this is not the Lewiston council.

Come Monday, this is what it must be.