Citizens deserve an explanation for the firing of city manager Hector Forestier.

Members of the Uvalde City Council who voted in favor of terminating Forestier did anything but justify their decision.

Instead, the council members who prevailed in the 4-2 vote cited personnel and privacy concerns in declining to comment to the media or the large crowd of pro-Forestier citizens who attended last Tuesday’s meeting.

This is unacceptable, considering that a public official is involved who will receive a $30,000 severance package paid- from local property tax revenues. Taxpayers are also funding the interim city manager post being filled by ex-city administrator Cale Diaz.

Granted, some discretion must be observed because of the potential legal issues involved. Forestier himself, however, asked that the council debate his future in public and, like the rest of us, is probably in the dark about the officials’ motivation for the firing.

And of the six citizens who addressed the council, not one had anything critical to say of the city manager; the only people raising the ire of the citizens were the council members raising the issue in the first place.

The four council members who voted to terminate Forestier are put on notice of their need to clear the now-stenched air at City Hall. They are Lecho Quiroga, Paul Martinez, Connie Boyle and Roland Garcia.

Mayor George Garza and council member Cody Smith, who opposed the firingof Forestier, should likewise press their fellow city of Uvalde leaders for an acceptable accounting of this decision for themselves and the citizens that they all represent.