An ugly thing happened at Tuesday night’s Natchez Board of Aldermen meeting — city government ground to a halt over personal politics.

Political hopefuls and incumbents jockeying for position spun two issues — disputes over the sign ordinance enforcement and the selection of a new police chief — into campaign strife.

Racial differences seem to be involved, at least at the periphery, a fact that only makes the matter more disappointing.

Arguing over sign ordinance enforcement is just plain silly. The city messed up royally by saying initially that it didn’t intend to enforce its own laws, then reversing course later. It’s a trivial matter in the grand scheme of the problems facing the city.

As if the yelling and fussing over signs wasn’t enough, a second political hot-potato grenade was tossed into the boardroom — a vote on hiring a new police chief.

For the board to even consider such a vote seven days from a city election is incredibly asinine.

Such decisions should be postponed until after the city elections in June.

To avoid a vote on Tuesday night, three aldermen simply got up and walked out of the meeting. Their motivations may have been well-intentioned, but their actions were disappointing.

All of these shenanigans are shameful and embarrassing to Natchez.

Most Natchez residents — the schoolteachers, store clerks and good, churchgoing folks who make up the majority of our population — don’t act like that — ever.

Yet, we continue to tolerate this from our elected representatives.

Is all of the fluff and strife simply smoke and mirrors in hopes of stirring up a racial issue ahead of next week’s elections?

If that’s at its root, the election cannot come soon enough. When will we learn that Natchez will never move ahead if we continue fighting one another?