Steve Biggs, the Clayton town manager, put it this way: The written word is imperfect. Which helps to explain how Clayton Councilman Bob Ahlert found fault with the recent story about Mr. Biggs’ pay raise.

The story, by Herald reporter Sarah McNeil, did two things: It pointed out that Mr. Biggs had received a 4-percent raise to $122,534. It then pointed out the pay of other town managers, administrators and clerks. Our thinking was that residents of other Johnston towns might want to know what their top officials make, not what they make compared to Mr. Biggs. But Mr. Ahlert, in an e-mail to Ms. McNeil, saw a motive in the story: to suggest that Mr. Biggs was overpaid.

That was certainly not our intent, and we said so in e-mails to Mr. Ahlert and Mr. Biggs. To the contrary, we think Mr. Biggs earns every penny he is paid. When he came to Clayton, the town had no cash in reserves. Mr. Biggs turned the town’s fiscal fortunes around, and he did so while managing growth in a way that put the emphasis on quality. As for comparison pay, we’d certainly expect the manager of fast-growing Clayton to make more money than his peers elsewhere in Johnston.

Mr. Ahlert is one of the smartest elected leaders we’ve ever met, but he read more into the news story than was there. Our motive, as always, was to inform readers, nothing more, nothing less.