It may not go down in history as the great Fircrest walkout of 2009, but the hasty exit of three City Council members Tuesday night was still causing a buzz Wednesday in the city of 6,300 people.

The council’s regular, twice-monthly meeting ended abruptly when council members Hans Hechtman, Mike Weinman and Chris Gruver walked out shortly before 8 p.m. They left before the city manager could explain his controversial decision to lay off employees because of a budget shortfall.

With Mayor Kathy McVay absent, the trio’s departure left only three council members, one short of a quorum. The city attorney had no choice but to end the meeting, leaving the audience of 40 people and three remaining City Council members shocked.

“The most insulting part was they prevented the item from being discussed,” Councilman David Viafore said Wednesday. The former mayor was one of the three who didn’t walk out, along with council members Robert Thaden and Matthew Jolibois.

“I thought we were in a third-world country, where one party just ups and leaves,” Viafore said.

Hechtman said Wednesday the reasoning behind his early departure was simple: The city manager was authorized to make tough budget cuts, and there was no reason to belabor things.

The Fircrest council had given City Manager Bill Brandon the authority to cut expenses to fill a $186,000 gap in this year’s budget, and he did so, in part, by eliminating 2.5 positions. City leaders had discussed the layoffs the night before during a heated study session.

“I knew that it was going to be brought up (Tuesday) and that it wasn’t going to be productive,” Hechtman said. “They don’t accept that the decision had been made, and they had not been willing to move on.”

The walkout is creating a stir in the small city wedged between Tacoma and University Place, with some people calling for more government transparency.

Viafore said he hadn’t seen a walkout staged in his 17 years on the Fircrest council. Brandon said he hadn’t seen one in his 20 years working in municipal government.

The incident also reveals the divisions on the seven-member council. The issue goes back to Fircrest’s financial troubles. Brandon said the city learned about the shortfall in its $7.1 million budget earlier this year. A $200,000 drop in sales and real estate taxes accounted for most of the shortage.

So he trimmed expenses and made other cuts that brought the shortfall to $85,000. At that point, he said he decided to lay off a facilities manager and a maintenance worker, and reduce a full-time administrative police position to part time. The layoffs go into effect Friday.

“It was a really, really hard decision to make,” Brandon said.

He said he updated the Fircrest City Council about the layoffs during Monday’s study session. Viafore said the meeting turned into a shouting match, so he asked Brandon to explain his decision the following night at the regular council meeting.

But as the city’s elected leaders finished the “New Business” portion of the agenda and were set to hear the city manager’s comments, Hechtman spoke.

“I told them the issue had been decided, executed and was done,” he said. “There had been nothing left to discuss.”

He stood and walked out. Weinman and Gruver announced the same thing and left. At that point, Fircrest’s city attorney announced the meeting couldn’t continue without a quorum of at least four members.

Kathy Owens, a member of the city advisory committee for the Fircrest Community Center, was in the crowd. She wasn’t there to talk layoffs; she just wanted to see if council members would talk about the community center.

“It was very immature and unprofessional,” she said about the walkout.

Hechtman is up for re-election in November and facing challenger Denny Waltier. When asked if there was any political motivation behind his walkout, Hechtman said, “None whatsoever.”

“It was just not a productive use of my time,” he said. “We had already discussed the plan … I want to move forward. I want to continue to find ways to help the city.”

McVay didn’t return phone messages left by The News Tribune Wednesday.

Viafore said whatever the reason for the walkout, it was wrong.

MaryAnn Clabaugh agrees. Her husband, Dave, is the facilities manager who will lose his job Friday after almost 27 years with Fircrest. “I guess I was so shocked I didn’t know the meeting was over,” she said Wednesday. “All I want to know is why?”

Brent Champaco: 253-597-8653

brent.champaco@thenewstribune.com