The quality of our local government’s leadership seems to wax and wane about as quickly as the moon changes its phase in the nighttime sky overhead.

We’ve chided the Adams County supervisors for giving themselves raises recently, but we also offer them some praise for seemingly always considering every side of a problem.

Like thousands of American leaders — business and government alike — supervisors have been concerned with the rising costs of providing health care coverage for their workers.

But supervisors are taking a rather novel approach — hire their own medical care professional to serve as the front line defense against routine health care needs.

At the same time, at least based on the supervisors’ plans, the county’s proposed nurse practitioner position could also fill the bulk of the medical role needed for county inmates and juvenile detention center detainees as well.

That’s a novel approach and one that may make good sense — for county employees as well as county taxpayers.

We only wish the six Natchez city aldermen were watching and learning from the county’s good example of attacking a problem in a different way.

Instead, on a related issue, we recently watched as the city’s selection of a health insurance provider degenerated into a squabbling match. Rather than looking at all options, the majority of the city aldermen seemed to take the most expedient way out and simply re-signed with the existing provider. That came despite another insurance provider effectively standing in the corner and politely pointing out that their company could save nearly $1 million on the city’s annual health insurance tab.

Did city leaders even consider this? Nope, they chose the path of least resistance, despite the enormous neon sign blinking in their field of vision.

Hopefully, residents will ask enough questions about this that the aldermen will reconsider their snap decision.