Amarillo City Hall has become a source of melodrama and intrigue.

This isn’t how government is supposed to work.

Three men got elected in 2015 to the Amarillo City Council. They promised “change.” It came, all right.

The city attorney quit. The assistant city manager retired. Then the city manager quit. All the while other key positions remained unfilled.

Then the city hired an interim city manager. He shuffled duties around. He reorganized the City Hall bureaucracy, getting high praise from those who report to the manager.

The City Council yanked economic development duties from a non-profit agency and handed them to City Hall operators, again at the recommendation of the new interim manager.

Now the new guy has gotten entangled in a controversy over how the city 911 emergency call center works. His briefcase got misplaced and he placed a call to the center and made some stern demands of the dispatcher who answered his call.

Then more change came about, this time at the call center.

I’m watching this drama — right along with the rest of the city’s residents — from the proverbial peanut gallery. I get that change often can be a good thing. I also get that change isn’t necessarily achieved for the better. Sometimes change for the sake of it takes over and confusion reigns.

To be candid, City Hall ought to be a place that runs with cool efficiency. That’s what the governing council — the folks who are responsible ultimately for how the city works — keeps promising for us.

They vowed to bring about change. They didn’t tell us about the chaos.

Or the intrigue.

How about getting a grip on things at City Hall?