News-Record.com

McNeill officially “retired” at the Dec. 11 commissioners meeting but it was abundantly clear that he was given an offer he couldn’t refuse: Retire or be fired. His ouster was swift and sure. And surprising. The commissioners usually make it obvious if they are unhappy with the county manager or one of his department heads. Not this time.

After a bipartisan gambit that involved the unlikeliest of bedfellows, Democrat Alston and the board’s most conservative Republican, Vice Chairman Steve Arnold, the rumors of McNeill’s demise turned out to be anything but exaggerated.

As for what McNeill did or did not do to deserve this treatment, who knows? He hadn’t even received a formal evaluation.

Noting the commissioners’ penchant for un-employing managers not long after employing them, Democrat Paul Gibson, then the chairman, said: “My sense is the majority of the commissioners want to change our evil ways.”

Now McNeill is out and Gibson is not so optimistic. “Would you want to work for us 11 commissioners?” he told the News & Record. “You’d be crazy to work for us.”
Of course, Gibson has seen the other side as well. He helped engineer the ouster of County Manager Willie Best in 2006, which culminated in a tense barrage of insults and name-calling at a commissioners’ meeting.

McNeill was hardly the only casualty. Last week, as expected, Deputy County Manager Ben Brown received an offer he couldn’t refuse either: Resign or have your job eliminated. Brown officially resigned Dec. 12, whereupon county Human Resources Director Sharisse Fuller replaced him on an interim basis, an act that would seem unnecessary for a job that has been deemed unnecessary. Even so, Brown says he’ll apply for the manager’s job.

If this story sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve heard it before. McNeill, a former deputy manager, succeeded the fired Best. Alston bitterly complained then that “you don’t play politics with people’s livelihood.”

McNeill will be replaced by an interim manager, Brenda Jones Fox, the county’s finance director — who was ousted as county manager in 1993.

McNeill served as permanent manager for 23 months before he was forced out. Fox was fired after only 16 months in the job.

There is a sad, wacky symmetry here.

How unhealthy is this for the county? Where to begin?

l Turnover hurts continuity. Constant churn at the top creates disorder and uncertainty. It damages morale and breeds anxiety among department heads and other employees.
l It hinders the ability to recruit the best candidates. After all the drama over the years, who in his or her right mind would want to work in Guilford County, where odds are you’ll be fired barely before you can warm your seat?

When the commissioners recruited a new manager in 2003, 73 candidates responded. But when looking for Best’s replacement, they received just 30 applications, only half of which met the minimum criteria.

“Circle K gets more applicants than that for store clerks,” Republican Commissioner Billy Yow quipped.

l The reason for McNeill’s ouster remains a mystery. There were no clear measures and goals. No objective performance evaluation.

For all we know, McNeill may have looked at someone the wrong way.

l It increases the likelihood of another abrupt change. If the manager’s future is tied to whoever controls fragile majorities and tenuous alliances on the board, it might even become a yearly occurrence.

To be fair to Guilford, the risk of being fired, suddenly, is a given for all city and county managers, who serve at the pleasure of elected boards. For instance, the Greensboro City Council — and some members of the public — have hotly debated the future of City Manager Mitchell Johnson for months.

But make no mistake, it’s the commissioners who have honed revolving-door leadership to a fine art.