Moves to oust top Hall County administrators began after the three commissioners involved in the shake-up feared a leak to the media from Gov.-elect Nathan Deal's office.

"We felt we knew it was getting out, and we felt like we owed it the people that were being (fired)," newly sworn-in Hall County Commissioner Craig Lutz said Thursday. "We felt we owed them a conversation before they read it in the paper."

The resignations left commissioners and county employees in a whirlwind, with Commissioners Ashley Bell, Lutz and Scott Gibbs seeking new faces for the county administrator, assistant county administrator, county attorney and county finance director.

Lutz said he doesn't know for certain how the news broke about the firings, "but I do know the first call we got was from (Philip) Wilheit, asking us to confirm a rumor he heard that we were replacing Charley Nix with Jock Connell."

"That's where it came from. That's why we decided we had to act," Lutz said. "And really, we didn't act. We just want to make sure we notified the affected people before the press did."

Wilheit, president and managing partner of Wilheit Packaging Materials, was Deal's campaign manager and now serves as a transition vice chairman.

"I'm a little bit disappointed in Craig that he would make those assumptions about me without any further knowledge or proof," Wilheit said Thursday. "That is absolutely not the truth."

Wilheit did say he heard rumblings about the shake-up. He called Gibbs and Bell, who have joined together in the matter, to confirm "that was what was going on."

"I talked to both of them about that, and they told me what they were doing," Wilheit said. "... I didn't call anyone at the newspaper."

Just hours before news about the Hall County resignations broke Wednesday, Lutz wrote an e-mail to the Flowery Branch mayor and members of the City Council criticizing the way news leaked earlier this week that they planned to oust City manager Bill Andrew.

"Newspaper articles should follow the action, not precede the action. At this time, the council has not made a vote," he wrote at 11:30 a.m. "I believe that this article has caused so much damage that if a person wanted to change their mind, it would be difficult for them to."

At 4:15 p.m., one of the e-mail recipients, who blocked out the name before sending documents to The Times on Thursday, responded to Lutz about Lutz's handling of the Hall County resignations.

"This blew up at noon and came from the governor's office. It did not come from the commission," Lutz responded at 5 p.m. "If you would like to talk about the differences, I will be happy to discuss them with you. However, you should know that we tried to keep a tight lid on it but learned a valuable lesson from Flowery Branch. No comment isn't always the best comment."

After Thursday's commission meeting, Wilheit continued to maintain that he didn't leak the news but didn't "hold a grudge" against Lutz for the accusation.

Bell, who switched to the Republican Party on Dec. 9, declined to comment about Lutz's accusation.

"This has nothing to do with me," he said Thursday night.