A message for the dignified collection of elected leaders in Weaver: Don't act like a few of your Calhoun County colleagues.

In other words, cool it.

Weaver Mayor Garry Bearden and the City Council have surely seen the embarrassing headlines that often follow council gatherings in Anniston. Just this year in the Model City, councilmen and the mayor have been embroiled in lawsuits, shouting matches, perceived death threats and all sorts of public shenanigans.

Anniston residents expect it. More than a few also have lost confidence in those leaders' ability to pilot the city's course.

Need another example, Weaver politicians? Gaze southward to Oxford, where the apparent calm of recent months isn't always the case. Mayor Leon Smith's never been one to avoid a challenge, and there are more than a few councilmen and women there with scars from their mayor-council tussles.

Oxford rarely looks good when the behavior of its omnipotent mayor and his council descends into a public free-for-all.

Unfortunately, it seems as if Bearden and some members of the Weaver council have learned their manners from the Anniston and Oxford examples. Emotions are frayed from months of discord over a disputed road project. Tuesday night, Councilman Mike Warren decided he'd had enough of what he called the "Garry Bearden show" and stormed out of the council meeting only 32 minutes in.

Is this the new norm in Weaver? Let's hope not.

Small-town politics rarely are as neat as novices would expect. But decorum is critical — for politicians' reputations, and the city's as well. Residents should demand better behavior.