The Hammond Port Authority is taking more twists and turns than a Mobius strip.

The latest, and proper, direction to take this controversy is exactly where Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. took it.

McDermott and Councilman Mark Kalwinski, D-1st, are asking Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller to rule on whether serving as a Port Authority member is a lucrative position. Their argument, which seems valid, is that Port Authority members are paid a stipend, and the Indiana Constitution forbids elected officials from holding two lucrative offices -- meaning two positions for which they get paid.

Port Authority members are paid $6,000 a year. City Council members get paid close to four times that amount.

That extra $6,000 is why City Council members have been falling all over themselves to win appointment to the Port Authority. Why serve on the Plan Commission for free when $6,000 is paid to the councilman who serves in a similar capacity on the Port Authority?

That council tussle reinforces McDermott's position that serving on the Port Authority is a lucrative position.

McDermott lit the fuse on this controversy in January, when he vetoed the council's appointment of Bob Markovich, D-at large. McDermott said Markovich's name was inserted in a resolution meant to reappoint Kalwinski.

There has been a lot of drama since then, including calling in the police to remove Markovich from a Port Authority meeting.

That drama needs to end with Zoeller issuing an official ruling that a seat on the Port Authority is a lucrative position. But even without that ruling, the council should always appoint civilians to the Port Authority, just as McDermott has done.

Kalwinski said in a city news release late Thursday that he would remove his name from consideration for the Port Authority and would ask that a civilian be appointed instead. The City Council must set greed and politics aside and agree with Kalwinski.