Former Yakima City Council member, Neil McClure's resignation seemed to surprise everyone. But he told Action News he's been thinking about it for about a month now.

He says the division between council members is interfering with important decisions. The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back was the city budget. Neil McClure told Action News the council decided to study the county's system to see if it could work for the city. Instead, he says, Rick Ensey changed tactics and took matters into his own hands. "The very first thing out of anyone's mouth, was Rick saying I'm gonna make this short and simple, I have a motion to immediately adopt the county's policies and procedures on their budget," said McClure.

McClure told me, Ensey did it with the help of 3 other council members he got on his side before the meeting, to be sure he had their vote. So Action News spoke with Ensey today to get his side of the story. He admitted to me that he talked with Bill Lover, Kathy Coffey and Micah Cawley because he knew they had a big interest in changing the budget. McClure and Mayor Dave Edler didn't share that interest.

Melissa Wagner asked, "So does this then become your mission, to do what you want to do regardless what other council members want to do?" Ensey responded, "Well, I don't know if it's my mission because I didn't start it. Bill has been the one looking to change the budget system since he's been on council, Micah Cawley is the same way, Kathy Coffey has wanted to do this for the 2009 budget, so it's been going on for a long time. It's just no one's taken the initiative to get it moving, and I decided if I've got 3 other people then I'm going to do it."

Kathy and Bill both agree they've been working on this process for some time now, and that McClure knew that they wanted to make it happen. That this was no ambush. "This wasn't an absolute blind side. Maybe council member McClure thought there'd be more study but that was the problem with some of us - more study would put it off for another year," said Lover. And Coffey adds, " I guess I'm a little shocked that he has taken this attitude toward it. He was very familiar with the fact that Micah and I were embracing it during budget committee."

In the end, the county budget system was adopted and council will begin implementing it as soon as possible. But they'll do it with one less council member. And whoever steps into that seat for the West Valley District may need running shoes, to keep up with the new fast pace of the council, and the decisions they have yet to make. In case you're wondering where the newest member, Sonia Rodriguez falls into all this. Kathy says she tried to meet with her before Tuesday to get her backing, but wasn't able to.