Well, well. There is a new sheriff in town.

Guy Desjardins has reached his maximum internal temperature with the Androscoggin County commissioners, whose petty treatment of the popular, and popularly elected, county sheriff and his once-and-future chief deputy has our personal mercury bubbling as well.

The sheriff has finally, and deservedly, blown his top. He’s well within his right, as nearly all of his efforts to assume control of the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office have been torpedoed by the meddling micro-management of the county’s governing board: Helen Poulin, Chairman Elmer Berry, and Constance Cote.

As a civics lesson, Androscoggin County is a nightmare. The dysfunction within its top ranks – fueled by the pettiest of conflicts, most of the time – merely builds a case for its overdue retirement. Nothing about what the county’s leaders are doing has any semblance of public service.

It seems to have everything to do, however, about machismo. If this were a western movie, Desjardins and Berry have just spit into the street, fingers twitching warily over their gun belts, while trading steely glances as the clocktower in the town square inches toward noon.

But this is Androscoggin County, not Dodge City. And this is politics, where victory is determined by measured compromises, not who’s fastest on the draw. Like a western, however, the result of political fights usually ends with one side lying boots up, dead in the dust.

Our wager is on Sheriff Desjardins. The new sheriff deserves victory, because he’s started to push reform onto an anachronistic, and complacent, form of governance in desperate need of modernizing.

Moving the county commission’s meetings to the evening, instead of during the day, is dead-on. Broadcasting meetings on local access television is another bull’s-eye. There’s little the sheriff can suggest to open county government that we won’t enthusiastically, and vociferously, lend our support.

It’s not because we think the sheriff is infallible. It’s because we’re proponents of open government.

March 11 through March 18 is “Sunshine Week,” a seven-day reminder to government – from their friends in the media – that the best governance is transparent, and to let the sun shine into their inner workings.

Most governments have SPF 100 to divert public rays. The Associated Press has found fewer than 10 states track open-government complaints, with the penalty for betraying the public a stern wrist-slap.

County governments, across Maine, are some of the worst offenders of this. Sheriff Desjardins wants this to change. He doesn’t have to care; as sheriff, he could simply enforce laws and let his county brethren stay in the dark.

We want greater access, and accountability, within Androscoggin County government. And as long as Sheriff Desjardins wants to fight for it, we will back him.

The public should support their sheriff as well.