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GREENSBORO — Guilford County Attorney Sharron Kurtz announced her resignation this week, the third high-level county worker to leave under the new leadership of Commissioners Melvin “Skip” Alston and Steve Arnold.

“Steve and I told her that it’s the will of the majority on the commissioners to have a change,” Alston said Thursday.

The Board of Commissioners this month voted in Alston as chairman and Arnold as vice chairman. Since then, they’ve met with county officials to broker deals that, in the past week, dismissed the county manager, deputy manager and Kurtz.

None of the moves came with any detailed explanations.

“I’m asking the public to trust us as public officials,” Alston said, offering only that Kurtz’s departure was needed to move the county in a new direction.

Alston would not say which commissioners supported removing Kurtz, but said he had enough votes on the 11-member board to fire her from the board-appointed position. He said she would leave Jan. 8 and be kept as a consultant for four months at a rate equal to what her monthly salary would be, without benefits.

Kurtz, 41, has worked for Guilford County since 2001 and became county attorney in May 2006. Her 2008 salary is $106,635. She did not return a phone message Thursday.

The attorney is the chief legal counsel of the county and the Board of Commissioners and oversees a staff of attorneys working in social services, the sheriff’s office and other departments.

In reaction to the departure of Kurtz and others, Commissioner Paul Gibson has been outspoken in his opposition to what Alston and Arnold appear to have in mind.

“That’s not the end of it,” Gibson said of the potential for more resignations. “There’s many, many more.”

Last week County Manager David McNeill announced a sudden retirement. A day later, Deputy County Manager Ben Brown signed a contract announcing his resignation.

Alston and Arnold are building groups to hire a new county manager and find efficient government in areas such as schools, personnel and other places.

Details on that plan are scarce, too, other than the recent inclusion of business leaders to the groups.

“I would trust that the public would understand and appreciate that we have been elected to represent the community,” Alston said.

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com