Four years after Cessnock City Council lost two of its three directors in a matter of months sparking a period of turmoil, the council is at it again, only this time it is two directors in one day.
And this time the directors were not pushed because of misconduct allegations. They walked because they had had enough.
Councillors were advised in a confidential session on Wednesday night that director of planning Darryl Fitzgerald and director of corporate and community services Craig Bennett would be leaving after a council restructure.
They did not apply for new positions of "team leaders" under the council restructure and are "leaving without looking back", the Newcastle Herald was told.
Councillors were advised both men would leave with redundancy payments.
The news came on the same night the council's public gallery was filled with more than 20 council employees angered by critical planning and operations reports. The reports contained errors that staff were not given an opportunity to correct before they were placed on the council's website, they alleged.
Employees received support from councillors including Cordelia Burcham, who slammed the restructure process and subsequent reports and predicted the council was on the way to being sacked and an administrator appointed.
"I think the council is worse than it was when the Labor Party ruled here a few years ago when it was investigated, and that's a fairly big call," she said.
"What we have now is just bloody-minded partisan block voting, and staff morale at an all-time low with people openly talking about leaving.
"I'm completely disheartened by what's happening because this isn't a game. These are people's lives we're talking about."
Cr James Ryan, who opposed the restructure process put forward by the council's new general manager Lea Rosser late last year, said Mr Fitzgerald and Mr Bennett leaving the council sent a strong signal to other staff, and it was not a positive one.
Cr Ryan said events of the past few months were particularly disheartening to people who had experienced the tumult of 2006-09 when council lost three directors after misconduct allegations, one after a Department of Local Government investigation.
"There was a brief period in the sun when Cessnock Council started heading in the right direction, and now we're back where we were again," he said.
Cessnock mayor Alison Davey could not be contacted yesterday.
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