What will it take for voters to decide enough is enough?

Our trio of like-minded county commissioners preaches transparency, accountability and local control; fairness, ethics and evenhandedness; civility, respect and accommodation of opposing views; thoughtful deliberation toward decisions designed to bring us together, not drive us apart.

But in recent times, particularly since the advent of stridently partisan Lindsay Berschauer two years ago, it has repeatedly delivered quite the opposite.

It has taken high-handed actions designed to inflame. It has run roughshod over even the most understandable and well-grounded concerns. It has engaged in unrestrained nepotism, favoritism and self-dealing.

It has often cloaked its motives in secrecy. It has attempted to assert its control both upward over state and federal laws it doesn’t like and downward over city and special district regulations not squaring with its partisan ideology.

It has often acted in vengeful and vindictive ways. It has repeatedly poured money into favored ideological causes, skewed funding to reward friends and punish foes, and withheld funding for worthy causes its members don’t personally favor.

One of the hallmarks of the trio’s ascendency has been brushing off the wisdom of people who’ve earned advanced degrees, compiled sterling records and amassed decades of highly specialized experience in their fields. Our commissioners seem to think they know more about medicine than doctors, law than attorneys and just about anything else than just about anyone else.

So it came as no surprise here when the commissioners maneuvered in secrecy to stage a surprise takeover of the county’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, and provided hardly even the barest outlines of an honest rationale.

No surprise that they saw fit along the way to stack the panel with members of the hazelnut industry, political cronies, people with George family connections and applicants with no demonstrated interest or expertise in parks and recreation. That they ignored recommendations based on earnest interviews and deliberations conducted by existing parks board members. Or that one of the hazelnut growing political cronies deemed more suited than parks board choices just happened to be Berschauer’s politically active husband, Mike Firestone.

Nor was it surprising when two board members who do boast demonstrated interest and expertise in the field immediately quit in protest, giving the novice newcomers an even clearer path to unfettered control.

Berschauer said she was simply trying to give work on a new long-range parks plan a jump-start.

But she almost immediately suggested a more sinister motive, saying one question she wants the newly expanded and reconstituted board to consider is a possible “need to monetize.” Not consider further development, expansion or improvement of the current largely undeveloped system over the coming couple of decades, but the possibility of milking a few more dollars from it in the form of user fees.

One other hidden motive also suggests itself, of course. How could it not, given the fact Berschauer rode trail opposition to victory and continues to fan those flames to whip up political and financial support?

Early prediction: The new board will not look kindly toward trails for hikers, bikers or wildlife enthusiasts.

Does this truly represent the majority view of voters in Yamhill County? We think not.

Our largely rural county is deeply rooted in principled conservatism. But the board’s pattern of behavior represents a perversion of the concept, twisted and tormented well past the breaking point.

There is nothing principled about it. And it does a disservice to the root definition of conservatism as a commitment to traditional values.

One has to wonder, where will the heavy hand of county government next strike a blow for narrow partisanship over the broader public good? Planning, transportation, law enforcement, public health, agency administration?

If we want to make Yamhill County functional again, we will need to elect commissioners dedicated to making the gears mesh smoothly, not jamming them willfully and maliciously at every turn.