news-record.com

The recent bloodletting at the top of Guilford government isn't over until Skip and Steve say it is.

And neither Skip Alston, the newly elected chairman of the county commissioners, nor Steve Arnold, the new vice chairman, is saying they're done yet.

First to go was County Manager David McNeill, who retired under pressure last week. The following day Deputy County Manager Ben Brown was told he could resign or have his job eliminated. And on Thursday, County Attorney Sharron Kurtz faced pretty much the same alternatives: Step down or be kicked out. "That's not the end of it," Commissioner Paul Gibson, who opposes the changes, told the News & Record's Gerald Witt.

All the while, Alston and Arnold have asked voters to trust that they are doing the right thing and have contended that the majority of commissioners support their actions.

That's not good enough. To see so many heads roll so fast with only a cryptic explanation that the county needs a "new direction" dismisses and disrespects both the voters and county employees.

What is going on here? Is this payback for the ouster of another former county manager, Willie Best, whom Alston supported in 2006? Are the commissioners fundamentally restructuring county government?

If that's so, Alston's and Arnold's bosses, the county's voters, need to know. And if the majority of the commissioners do support these sweeping changes, they ought to have the guts to discuss them in the open.

Otherwise, this comes across as a brazen power play in which Alston and Arnold intend to micromanage county government as de facto co-managers. Whatever their goals, this is the wrong way to accomplish them.

How can a county hire the best and brightest top executives in this kind of environment?

Alston, Arnold and the "silent majority" they invoke had better come clean with the public fast. Or the voters will have every right to seek "a new direction" on the commissioners' dais in the next election.