On Monday night, they fired him.

The decision caught just about everybody - apparently including Montgomery - by surprise.

Monday's decision was unexpected on several counts. First of all, this is the same board that hired Montgomery, just nine short months ago.

Short of something illegal or immoral - neither of which has been alleged - it's hard to imagine that any high-level hire could prove to be such a poor fit for a town.

Montgomery has guided commissioners through a budget process. He has negotiated on their behalf an arrangement for water to the Wendell Falls development and he has been working with the city of Raleigh to avoid an October surcharge on water bills that still looms if town commissioners and Raleigh's elected leaders can't come to terms on a rewritten merger deal.

Commissioners have, thus far, hidden behind the state's personnel law in refusing to explain their actions, despite the fact that the law allows for an exception to personnel privacy laws when the agency's reputation is made suspect because of the employee's actions.

And, brother, you better believe Wendell is, once again the talk of the county.

People all over Wake County are wondering what's going on over there in Wendell.

They've been through three managers in four years - two in the last two years.

Much of the damage to the town's reputation has been self-inflicted by town commissioners who can't seem to figure out what they want to do.

Wendell residents deserve better. They should demand better. They should insist commissioners explain their actions publicly.

If their decision to fire Montgomery was justified - and we're sure they believe it was - then we can't imagine any scenario in which they would be harmed in telling their bosses why they did what they did.