The Tonganoxie poultry plant fiasco is an example of why transparency works and secrecy doesn’t when it comes to government.

Tyson Foods Inc. announced Tuesday that it is shelving its proposed $320 million poultry plant near Tonganoxie, just a day after the Leavenworth County Commission and Tonganoxie City Commission each reversed their support for public incentives that would benefit the plant.

Tyson pulled the plug on the plant just two weeks after company officials, Gov. Sam Brownback and others came to Tonganoxie to announce it. The state-of-the-art chicken-processing facility would span more than 300 acres at a site two miles south of Tonganoxie. The plant was expected to employ up to 1,600 workers earning salaries of $12 to $15 per hour.

Tyson chose the site in part because the company had received commitments that city and county government were ready to provide incentives for the project. For the county, that commitment was $500 million in industrial revenue bonds to cover 80 percent tax abatements for 10 years. The city of Tonganoxie was expected to extend sewer service to the plant site at a cost of $1.3 million.

By the time the announcement was made, the commitments of support from the county and city were in hand. In fact, county commissioners voted 3-0 to support a bond resolution to benefit something called Binswager Advisory Services. It was only after the Tyson announcement that it was revealed that Binswager is really Tyson.

State, county and city officials clearly thought they had an economic development winner. Why else would Brownback make the announcement? But the backlash was immediate and strong. A protest group quickly formed and 2,000 showed up for a town hall meeting with state officials in a Tonganoxie park to protest the plant.

At Monday’s Tonganoxie City Commission meeting, four of five commissioners indicated they no longer supported extending sewer service to Tyson. On Monday, county commissioners voted 2-1 to rescind the offer of industrial revenue bonds. By Tuesday, Tyson had had enough.

“We still have interest in Leavenworth County,” the company said in a letter distributed widely in Tonganoxie, “but will prioritize the other locations in Kansas and other states that have expressed support.”

The ordeal could not have gone worse for county and city commissioners, who secretly played a significant role in helping lure Tyson to the area and then openly couldn’t run away fast enough from the ensuing backlash.

This should have been handled differently. Having the governor announce the chicken plant made it seem like the facility — including the incentives — was a done deal. That raised the level of public mistrust and doomed the plant.

Next time, if there is a next time, county and city should insist on transparency. Any commitments on public incentives should come only after public discussions about the applicants and the merits of the projects.