After many months of rifts, rumors and red-hot rhetoric prompted by what now appear to be scurrilous, unsubstantiated allegations invented or embellished to topple longtime Woodway City Manager and Police Chief Yost Zakhary, the Woodway City Council on Tuesday finally appeared to be on the same page following release of an independent investigation of Zakhary’s administration, conduct and integrity.

We only hope that the community, too, is at last on the same page, that what this exhaustive outside investigation brands as false allegations and outright hearsay — all stemming from a yearslong dispute with Woodway resident Mike O’Bric — are laid to rest once and for all. It’s time folks mended fences and got back to the business of keeping this one of the proudest, most law-abiding towns in our region.

The scene at Woodway City Hall on Tuesday evening was nothing less than remarkable. Council members who had unseated incumbents through campaigns fueled in part by allegations and innuendo leveled by O’Bric and targeting Zakhary now expressed regrets. Other council members who didn’t buy into the charges expressed the hope that Woodway can heal.

Still, longtime Councilman and attorney Don Baker lambasted O’Bric as one who “lied and lied and lied” and said his charges against Zakhary were “nothing but venom and vindictiveness.” O’Bric, who months earlier held sway in council meetings as he roused others against Zakhary, was absent.

By now, it’s obvious that Zakhary has been put through recent turmoil and scrutiny because he fired O’Bric’s wife as manager of Woodway’s Carleen Bright Arboretum last summer. In the wake of this city personnel matter, O’Bric helped spur political campaigns to elect new council members amid allegations of wrongdoing against Zakhary for everything from misuse of city funds to sexual harassment to mismanaging personnel.

O’Bric did his neighbors and the city of Woodway no favors by launching this fruitless, divisive attack. In the end, he became, in our opinion, a virtual poster child for what’s wrong with politics today: Go after your opponent with all that you can muster, facts be damned. What we saw played out in Woodway this year brought home the very ugliness of national politics that so repulses many Americans.

By the same token, we shouldn’t judge those who demanded investigations too harshly. In the face of serious allegations, city leaders were right to order investigations, one internal, one independent — the last costing local taxpayers $25,000. The charges were too damning to overlook.

On behalf of the council, Mayor Bill Weber formally apologized to Zakhary for the episode, said the allegations were obviously intended to “embarrass and harass Mr. Zakhary,” and stated unequivocally that Zakhary “retains the trust and confidence of the city council.” Zakhary wept. Most of the full house at City Hall applauded.

We beg the good people of Woodway to take Mayor Weber’s plea to heart. The matter has been fully investigated with the cooperation of Zakhary and city staff. The council is now one on the matter. This sorry episode is done, the allegations disproved, and regrettable truths revealed in the process indict the accuser more than the accused. Now the community must focus on being whole and wholesome once again.