The turbulent times surrounding the Cayuga County Community Services board and the county's mental health department seem to be continuing.

The latest twist came last week, when an outgoing board member suggested the board hire its own attorney to look out for its own interests.

The contention is that the county Legislature is acting as an enemy of the board by taking actions such as requiring contracts to run through legislators and relocating mental health financial personnel to the county office building.

Fortunately, the board did not vote to approve the hiring of an attorney.

Unfortunately, it kept the idea alive by tabling the measure.

The Community Services Board does play a vital role in the delivery of mental health services in this county, but it cannot expect to operate as a completely independent entity.

Unlike government authorities, which have independent funding sources, the CSB relies on the county's general fund.

It would be irresponsible for the county Legislature to exercise no oversight of how these funds are spent.

It's time for everyone involved to start dealing with the real issues: The county continues to lose thousands of dollars in state aid because of inadequate facilities; more importantly, quality of care is compromised as long as the current clinic set-up remains in place.

We're hopeful that the comments from some of the CSB members indicate that this idea of hiring a lawyer to take on the Legislature will not fly.

“I don't like the battles,” said CSB member Arlene Egry. “As a consumer, it's jeopardizing the services I receive from the center.”

And that's precisely why the board should quickly reject this idea and start figuring out how to fix this county's mental health services crisis.