The manner in which the Anderson County Council meeting was conducted last Tuesday, with council members adding agenda items and producing contracts like they were pulling rabbits from hats, was not the way we believe open government should be run.

That said, the Anderson County Council has been run so contrary to the desirable norm for so long that Tuesday’s meeting may have been the best outcome we could have hoped for. The sad fact was that the actions taken to release Administrator Joey Preston from his job and replace him with Michael Cunningham were the best, most practical resolutions to the serious problems that have stymied our government for years now. We can thank Council Members Ron Wilson, Larry Greer, Michael Thompson, Bill McAbee and Gracie Floyd for having the courage to do the hard things and help Anderson County move forward. We can forgive their back-room maneuvering.

In case you have been living in a cave for the past week and missed all the fireworks, this is what happened:

Ron Wilson arrived late to the council meeting and asked to amend the agenda. This was approved, despite the objections of Council Members Bob Waldrep and Cindy Wilson. Mr. Wilson then presented a contract that would pay Administrator Joey Preston $1.14 million to leave his job. Mr. Wilson said after the meeting that the contract was quite a bit smaller than an administrator buyout in Pickens County a couple of years ago. And it was also quite a bit smaller than what the county could expect to pay in legal fees if it was sued by Mr. Preston for failing to honor his employment contract and then had to pay it anyway.

(We might add that it was quite a bit smaller than any number of buy-outs of losing college football coaches’ contracts, which no one seems to bat an eyelash at.)

More objections from Mr. Waldrep and Ms. Wilson followed the introduction of the contract plus jeers from their crowd of supporters. It was approved. Then Council Member Larry Greer presented a list of places the funds to pay Mr. Preston could be extracted from the county budget. They were approved. Then Council Member Gracie Floyd moved that Assistant Administrator Michael Cunningham be offered the administrator’s job, and presented a contract for him. Even more objections from Mr. Waldrep and Ms. Wilson followed this, but again, the matter passed.

Mr. Waldrep and Ms. Wilson now find themselves in the position of the dog that chased a car every day and finally “caught” the car. What are they to do with it? They are rid of their nemesis – but not in quite the manner they had wanted. We expect they envisioned Mr. Preston being led out of the council chambers in handcuffs, then buried under the jailhouse. Alas, they have not been able to prove he did anything wrong. Instead, he gets a pay-out, is protected by a standard hold-harmless clause of his contract, and a decent, hard-working and well-prepared young man is hired for the administrator’s job, instead of a person who would follow their every whim.

We truly believe that the matter was resolved in the best way possible, clearing the way for the new council that will take office in January to move forward and deal with this county’s serious problems, plus the fall-out of the international recession that is gripping the economy. Mr. Waldrep may well be sitting in the chairman’s seat then, with Ms. Wilson at his side. It will be their responsibility to lead a divided county, which they may find is much more difficult to do. We hope they will drop the notion of a forensic audit, which will further paralyze the county, cost as much as another $1 million (or more) and probably produce nothing of consequence.

Mr. Preston, who has moved Anderson County forward light-years in the dozen years he has been here, leaves office with a buyout that is healthy but not obscene. We hope he will find a position with government or in a private sector organization that has a greater appreciation for his unique talents.

Above all, we hope for change. Anderson County has become the Iraq of South Carolina, a place that no business or industry would want to invest in because of our unstable government. We hope Mr. Waldrep and Ms. Wilson, along with the three newly elected members of council who take office in January, can focus on moving government forward again. By their actions Tuesday night, we can tell Mr. Wilson and Mrs. Floyd, who were re-elected, are ready to close this chapter in county government and work toward a brighter future.