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GREENSBORO — The polar opposites of Guilford County politics pledged to work together and seemed to stop just short of becoming golfing buddies Thursday night.

Commissioners Chairman Melvin “Skip” Alston and Commissioner Billy Yow said more communication among board members can be expected.

Their comments came moments after the two commissioners joined in a 10-1 vote Thursday that gave the board’s official approval to the search committees for a county manager and county attorney. Commissioner Carolyn Coleman voted no.

Originally, Alston himself had named the committees after becoming chairman. He also named other groups to review school spending, efficiency and other county issues.

“We’ve publicly aired it out, so that the public knows now that the whole board’s in it,” Yow said Thursday. “We want these two committees right here to go and narrow down this search.”

A few weeks ago, such harmony was hard to find between the pair, who represent two of the county’s most polarized groups. Yow is a white Republican whose district covers the rural-and-suburban southeast corner of the county; Alston is a black Democrat representing central, urban parts of east and south Greensboro.

Both have been acrimonious toward each another through the years, but they do — albeit more rarely — see eye-to-eye on some issues.

In December, the relationship was more strained than collegial. Alston created the search committees to fill positions that opened suddenly after he was named chairman, when former county manager David McNeill retired and county attorney Sharron Kurtz resigned. In the same December week, deputy manager Ben Brown resigned.

At the time, Yow said that Alston — without seeking input from all commissioners — had forced the employees out and that little communication was happening among board members.

Alston, who said he planned to be “more open” when he was sworn in as chairman, later admitted that he helped gather support among commissioners to push Brown and McNeill out.

At the time, like Yow, other commissioners said they had been left out of the loop.

On Thursday, Yow and Alston sang a different tune.

Other commissioners got in line with them and selected an interim county attorney: David Smith , who retired in December as Alamance County’s attorney and county manager.

“Congratulations, or condolences whichever one,” Democratic Commissioner Paul Gibson told Smith, in a joking reference to the recent turmoil to the county’s top administration.

Scars from those administrative changes are still fresh, although Alston has returned to the inclusive policy he staked out when he took the chairman’s seat.

“I have made it a point that, every meeting before we have a meeting, I’m going to touch base with every commissioner,” Alston said, “call them and ask them if they have questions with anything on that agenda.”

To that, Yow said after the meeting, better communication is a must now that the selection process is underway and the county’s budget season is beginning.

“Because things are really starting to get up and go now,” he said.

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