Differing expectations have broken up many relationships — both personal and professional. Apparently, that’s what happened with Susan Frye and the Anderson city administration. Frye had been appointed to the Animal Control Commission, an advisory board for the city’s Animal Care and Control, which manages the city’s animal shelter.

But Frye and Dick Wiley, the Board of Public Safety chairman, got into a shouting match a couple of weeks ago about the way the city shelter was being operated. Subsequently, the city administration removed her from the board.

Frye, you see, was pushing for rapid improvement in animal control, pointing out problems, showing photos of malnourished dogs. Essentially, she was pushing for the city’s animal control team to investigate instances of possible animal abuse and neglect and quickly improve care for animals at the city shelter.

Wiley, on the other hand, is satisfied that animal control is improving. “It’s 10 times better than it was under the last administration,” he said in a July 28 news article in The Herald Bulletin. “I can walk in there and I can breathe.”

Sometimes the expectations of people working on the same problem are so irreconcilable that progress is stunted or halted altogether. This can result from a philosophical loggerhead, a personality conflict or a power struggle — or all three.

More often, disagreement and friction are actually healthy ingredients for a successful effort. Meetings might not be as harmonious, but a greater variety of priorities, strategies and tactics are considered. The outcome is often more creative and progressive.

In Frye’s case, her dismissal is lamentable because she is highly committed to humane treatment of animals. She and her husband operate a rescue for pit dogs, and her passion for animal care is obvious to anyone who has talked to her.

Her passion, arguably, is precisely what got her booted off the commission. That, and her self-acknowledged deficiency of tact.

The administration has since backpedaled and left it in the commission’s hands to leave Frye off the board or reappoint her. Frye is mulling whether she wants to rejoin the commission.

For the commission, the question is whether Frye’s expectations are realistic.

For Frye, the question is whether she can reconcile her expectations with those of the city administration.

We Believe

In deciding whether to welcome Susan Frye back, the Anderson Animal Control Commission must decide whether her expectations can be reconciled with those of the city administration.