Just moments into Monday night's Yadkin commissioners' meeting, the board voted to go into closed session to discuss a "personnel matter."

Perhaps hoping to generate a little comic relief or straining to understand the nature of the secret session on such short notice, I made the comment to a couple of folks in the lobby that perhaps the board was discussing the status of the county's top administrative officer. I even went so far to suggest that commissioners might be terminating Eric Williams.

But then I paused and realized that Williams had a contract. I was right. Williams "had" a contract, all the way up to July 1.

Now, less than three weeks later, Williams had been summarily dismissed by the board. There was no official explanation by commissioners except some vague statements that the board wanted to go "in a different direction." And it was a unanimous vote. Even Brady "I'm not with this board" Wooten voted to oust Williams.

My immediate reaction, like most everyone else in the building, was one of shock and disbelief. As the whispers and rumors began to swirl, I patiently waited for my laptop to warm up and catch up with the news.

"We have dismissed the county manager," Chairwoman Kim Phillips told the small crowd as they re-entered the commissioners' room. "We have decided to go in a different direction."

Phillips offered a brief apology for the stunning news, saying that she was "sorry to drop a bomb on everybody."

No one was more shocked about the board's decision, I'm sure, than Williams himself. After all, there had been no hint (at least publicly or overtly) that Williams' job was in jeopardy. I spoke with him Monday morning in court and he appeared briefly in the county manager's office in the early afternoon.

I know, as a reporter, that my first responsibility is to get the story, not just to regurgitate some vague comments from elected officials who are desperately trying to put the best face on a major personnel shakeup. It's not everyday that the manager of an organization with 250 employees, a $37 million budget and a six-figure salary gets the axe. So I began to make mental notes, jotting down a series of questions for board members during the recess.

But I couldn't help but feel a sense of sorrow and emptiness. I know that in the rough and tumble world of politics managers come and go. And yet I still felt bad about Williams' abrupt and involuntary departure. Sure, he would get a nice six months severance package. But there was something strangely unsettling about that empty chair behind his nameplate.

Was I becoming soft? Had I gotten too close to my source? I don't believe so. In fact, if the truth be known, I'm sure that no one felt good about the final outcome.

No one worked more closely with Williams than Phillips in recent months. In a Tuesday morning meeting with department heads, Phillips said that Williams "had done a good job for the county." But again, she reiterated that the board wanted to go "in a different direction at this time."

It doesn't take a political scientist to realize that Williams wasn't meeting the board's expectations. And every local government manager knows, even if they have a contract, that they serve at their board's pleasure. All it takes is a 3-2 vote in most cases and you're out the door.

In Williams case, it's not that clear cut. The best we can discern from commissioners' statements and Williams' brief tenure -- including some prolonged budget workshops this year -- is that this board felt they needed to address an ongoing personnel issue rather than leaving it for the next board. Although she didn't say so publicly, Phillips was clearly doing a lot of work in the background. Some of her critics accused her of micro-managing Williams. Others said that she was just just making sure that things got done.

"I was keeping up with him everyday and I'll be gone in five months," Phillips said.

That was probably the most telling statement of all. For whatever reason -- and we may never know the full story -- Williams had lost this board's confidence.

Now comes the hard part: Williams, if he hasn't already begun, has to start circulating his resume. And the county, which is temporarily relying on the services of its engineer, has to find a replacement, which will be no easy task. After all, Williams' termination comes just two years after former County Manager Cecil Wood was forced out by a previous board. So it's understandable if some prospective candidates are a little fearful about signing up for the gig.

As for myself, I decided during my graduate studies in public administration that I didn't care to enter the turbulent world of local government. I watched my father juggle municipalities and counties from Cooleemee to Danbury. And I can recall his frustrations after a long commute home to East Bend after requesting funding for the Northwest Regional Council of Governments.

"You're better off staying on the other side and working for a newspaper," my dad would say. "You can write about the politics without being a part of it. In this business you have to try to please everyone. And regardless of what you do or how hard you work, there will always be critics who are never satisfied."

He was talking about politics, right?