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Guilford County Manager David McNeill will likely announce his retirement on Thursday because he faces a potential ouster by the Board of Commissioners, according to Commissioner Billy Yow.

Yow said a coalition of commissioners led by new Chairman Melvin "Skip" Alston and Vice Chairman Steve Arnold that has enough support to remove the county manager.

Though Yow said he is not a part of the group to remove McNeill, the Republican commissioner said four other commissioners with Alston and Arnold support replacing the manager.

"Call Kirk (Perkins)," Yow said. "Him and Linda (Shaw), and Steve and Skip and Carolyn (Coleman) and Bruce (Davis), they are in the know."

Commissioners Coleman and Davis had little to say when asked about McNeill.

"There have been some discussions with Daivd about retiring," Davis said Wednesday. "This is probably a good time to make a change. I support the change that the chair and vice chair plan to do."

Davis wouldn't go into further detail about those changes, however.

There is also some talk that Deputy Manager Ben Brown's position could be affected, and that McNeill and Brown would be replaced in the interim from within by finance director Brenda Jones Fox and human resources director Sharisse Fuller.

"I hear that Fox will come in as manager," said Commissioner Paul Gibson. "If Ben doesn't roll over and play dead, they may being Sharisse over and call it something else."

The Board of Commissioners appoints the county manager, but other positions such as the deputy manager are appointed by the county manager.

Gibson opposed Alston for chairman and has indicated that the board's new leadership is moving toward more hands-on control of county staff and resources, which he sees as a negative move.

"I think it's an example of wanting to have complete total power and control," Gibson said. "Arnold and Skip Alston, they're polar opposites as far as politics are concerned, and they both need each other."

Alston, a Democrat, and Arnold, a Republican, were voted in as leaders of the Board of Commissioners for 2009 under the promise that they would look carefully at county departments for cuts and other efficiencies.

Neither Alston nor Arnold returned phone messages Wednesay morning.