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GREENSBORO — Two huge banners showing a dove and a holiday message hang between stone columns on the Old Guilford County Courthouse.

The word "peace" adorns them.

The message belies the atmosphere inside, where the county's top administrators are out of office. The exits of the county manager, his deputy and the county attorney leave the question: Who's running the county?

On Dec. 1, two of Guilford's most polarized political personalities - Democrat Melvin "Skip" Alston and Republican Steve Arnold - joined to lead the Board of Commissioners as chairman and vice chairman, respectively. Their aim: cut the county budget amid a sliding economy and avoid a potential property tax rate increase that could raise the 2009 tax bill by $100 for the owner of a $200,000 home.

Working to avoid that tax increase meant removing the head of the county's government, a tandem that "had not been working," Alston said.

Talks that led to those ousters might have violated the state's open meetings law because they happened outside of the regular meetings in which commissioners set policy Guilford County. They were made with the approval of a narrow majority of commissioners.

County Manager David McNeill suddenly retired

Dec. 11. The next day, Deputy County Manager Ben Brown resigned. And last week, County Attorney Sharron Kurtz resigned.

"The team that we had there had not been working, and that includes Mr. Brown and David," Alston said. "There was no desire to bring about efficiency and accountability."

Alston and others said little regarding Kurtz, citing it as a personnel matter. The three receive severance equal to their monthly salaries, without benefits, and will be available to the county as consultants. Brown and Kurtz will each take four months' pay. McNeill will receive six months' salary.

The interim county manager is Brenda Jones Fox, previous finance director. Her backup, in a deputy-like role, is Sharisse Fuller, human resources director. The interim finance director is Reid Baker.

Alston points to long-standing dissatisfaction with McNeill. Since January, Alston has asked McNeill to prepare suggestions for more efficient government.

McNeill responded with a presentation on efficiency, adding a position to review budgets in county departments and estimates to hire a government efficiency consultant. Though McNeill recommended the current

$586 million budget with a tax increase, he handed commissioners a list of cuts that could defray that increase.

Still, the Board of Commissioners approved the 2008-09 budget with a property tax rate increase linked to debt on more than $651 million in bonds voters approved in May. The property tax bill rose about $95 for the owner of a $200,000 home.

Alston voted for that budget. Arnold voted against it.

Now, Alston and Arnold pledge to scrutinize the budget and avoid another tax increase.

They say they'll look for cuts, possibly shuffle staff internally and work on the budget themselves starting January instead of taking manager recommendations in May.

"I just don't want it to be business as usual," Alston said. "This cannot be Skip Alston's and Steve Arnold's agenda."

Yet Arnold admitted this week that there was an agenda when it came to McNeill and Brown.

"It is fair to say that there was a considered plan to make these changes in the top structure in the county government and make them quickly," Arnold said.

Little was said about the reasons for their departure at the time.

"We did our very best to handle it in a professional, calm manner and not be accusatory and not be controversial," Arnold said.

Since his retirement announcement, McNeill has been quiet on why he left. Brown said he wanted to work with commissioners and plans to apply for the manager's job.

"I said that I can move in any direction that somebody wants me to go with," Brown said last week of a conversation he had with Alston and Arnold before he resigned. "And they said that wasn't possible and they had plans to do away with the position."

Arnold and Alston said that they called other commissioners to see if they had support for firing the county manager and eliminating Brown's post.

"I get my six first," Aslton said, referring to the majority needed to pass a vote on the 11-member Board of Commissioners.

Those back-room talks and phone conversations may have violated the state's open meetings law.

An official gathering of members of a public body must happen in public with minutes documented. A group can meet and correspond informally, unless, according to the law, the meeting is "held to evade the spirit and purposes of this Article."

"If board members devised a plan to corral votes behind the scenes and in a way that evades the spirit of the open meetings law, I believe you do have an argument that what they did violated the law," Ashley Matlock Perkinson, an attorney for the N.C. Press Association, wrote in an e-mail.

But some commissioners weren't aware of what was planned with McNeill and Brown until it occurred.

"I have not seen any conversation on the board about this," said Democrat John Parks, an at-large commissioner, who did not support McNeill or Brown's departure, "and nothing ever in closed session was brought up."

Personnel discussions such as those for the county manager, attorney or other top administrators are often handled during commissioners' regular meetings but in closed session.

Instead, those talks happened elsewhere, where minutes are not likely to be recorded.

Commissioners Carolyn Coleman, a Democrat, and Linda Shaw, a Republican, said they were ready to remove the manager and deputy manager.

Democratic Commissioner Paul Gibson and Republican Billy Yow previously said they opposed McNeill and Brown leaving.

Democratic Commissioners Kirk Perkins, Bruce Davis and Republican Mike Winstead did not return messages.

Arnold said he's talked to Republicans, and Alston handled Democrats on the board.

"It's not about Ben, it's not about David," Alston said of Brown and McNeill. "We don't have any choice but to be more efficient. We might not have any fat in the county government. We won't know until we evaluate it."

As he says that, some county employees fear more department heads will fall.

"The money they claim they want to cut can only be done if they eliminate county government," said a senior county employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity, adding that the workplace environment felt "poisoned."

"Everyone is being very quiet," the employee said. "They're doing the essentials of their job. But everyone's just whispering, 'What's going to happen next?'"

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