"The Return of the Magnificent Seven" played at the Harford County Council chambers last week, the premiere of what is projected to be a four-year run.
Scripted with precision, the County Council members delivered their lines correctly, even as the agenda was performed out of printed order at the direction of Joanne Parrott, the council president and seniormost council member. Sharing the stage, each of the other six members was allowed to make or second a motion, not once stepping on anyone else's assigned lines.
President Parrott, as she referred to herself during Tuesday night's proceedings, conducted the session with expeditious, mostly professional aplomb.
She seldom called for discussion of motions, however, in keeping with her personal penchant for making remarks during the roll call. Others followed her lead and, while Henry Robert might wince at this rule of disorder, it went off without prolonged interruption of the voting.
There was little of substance transacted at this first session of the new council. The deliberative body lauded Miss Teen Harford County and programs against drunk/drugged driving, listened to auditors hit the highlights of last fiscal year's budget and introduced two routine bills to spend money.
But a subdued performance of "Night of the Long Knives" was also on the playbill, for those who watched carefully.
Councilwoman Susan Heselton, long at odds with Mrs. Parrott during the previous term, was pointedly left off the list of council member liaison appointments to boards and commissions, including those she held in the last council.
She complained about it after the meeting, but even those with short memories can recall that Mrs. Heselton unceremoniously replaced Mrs. Parrott as library board liaison two years ago, in a similar political move engineered by Jeffrey D. Wilson, then council president. It was a bitter rebuff to Mrs. Parrott, who had developed ties with national library organizations in her tenure.
Mrs. Heselton, who was a prominent member of the Wilson gang, had already tasted the first draft of the new council president's vengeance. She was moved from her old office to another one across the building. That thwarted her announced plans to use a personal computer in her office for council business; the computer lines are too distant from her new office site.
There was more. The council attorney and council auditor had tendered their resignations by letter the previous day and H. Edward Andrews III, the attorney, appeared before the body to read his farewell message.
In recognizing Mr. Andrews, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for a council seat this year, Mrs. Parrott told the meeting that he had resigned in response to a request by the council.
Mr. Andrews contradicted President Parrott, saying he had resigned voluntarily, even before the new council had convened, "because of philosophical differences with some of the members."
He then went on to name members of the past council who he felt had acted in the best interests of Harford County and the environment. Mrs. Heselton's name was included. Mrs. Parrott and her chosen council vice president, Barry Glassman, were not.
Mrs. Parrott had voiced her displeasure with Mr. Andrews during the campaign, claiming that he favored certain members with his work and slighted requests by others. His departure was not partisan politics, but a result of personal relations. The last council had a Republican majority, too, but Mr. Andrews was a Wilson appointee.
This all-Republican council, with four veterans and three newcomers, will also replace a third top job, that of council secretary. Doris Poulsen, who capably served in that position for two terms, recently resigned due to injuries sustained in an auto accident last year.
County Executive Eileen Rehrmann appeared before the council with her team of department heads, all holdovers from her first term except for two men who recently took jobs elsewhere.
But there was a clue of change. Procurement chief John J. O'Neill Jr. was missing from the lineup. Mr. O'Neill had gone from the procurement office to the county detention center as acting warden last year after the furor over investigation of the suspicious death of an inmate. He returned to the administration after Sheriff Robert Comes hired a new warden, Paul Hastmann, a year ago.
But the newly installed sheriff, Joseph Meadows, last week fired Mr. Hastmann. All indications are that he has asked Mr. O'Neill, who previously served in the state corrections system, to fill the position. That would underline Mr. Meadows' moves for cooperation with Mrs. Rehrmann, who was constantly in conflict with Mr. Comes.
That conciliation was also symbolized when the sheriff, a state official, was sworn in together with the county officials last week for the first time in Harford history.
Back at the council chambers, it was near quitting time when Councilman Mitch Shank waved into the TV camera for his daughter and passed out chocolate ducks to his fellow legislators.
President Parrott brought down the gavel and declared: "Now let's go and eat cake." No, no, that was her victory proclamation on election night. This time, she simply declared the first meeting of Harford's new County Council formally adjourned.
Mike Burns is The Baltimore Sun's editorial writer in Harford County.