Butler Fire Chief Nick Ban’s retirement, effective at midnight on Friday, was a surprise in a five-day span full of them.

Mayor Tom Donaldson’s decision last week to demote Ban came as a shock — to the public and to Donaldson’s fellow council members. The contentious public debate among city officials that followed produced a surprise meeting that’s still scheduled for Wednesday evening. And now Ban’s retirement.

Apparently surprise, not just trouble, comes in triplicate.

Ban’s stated reasons for stepping down from his position as chief — that he can’t abide Donaldson’s decision, but also can’t stomach putting his department through a legal process that would accompany any sincere effort to reverse it — are commendable. But neither of those reasons, nor Ban’s retirement, changes a thing at this point.

City officials need to sit down on Wednesday and hash out once and for all which tail wags which dog when it comes to these matters.

Did Donaldson overstep himself, or is his power as broad as he claims? Is the method and manner of this decision the way city officials want to conduct themselves?

Depending on the outcome, they may have to consider whether the current structure of oversight for public safety departments is the most efficient and effective. How much sense does it make to have chiefs reporting to a council member when it is the mayor who ultimately holds unilateral power to strip them of their jobs?

That’s a vital discussion, but the bigger conversation revolves around what Ban’s removal means for the city and the department.

Donaldson’s stop-and-go demotion of Ban was the third contentious personnel change to hit the city during his tenure as mayor. The first was his 2014 decision, made just weeks into his term, to demote then Police Chief Ron Fierst and promote the department’s current chief, Ron Brown. The second came in December, when Donaldson successfully pushed to dissolve the city’s parking authority and replace it with a paid, part-time manager. Ban’s demotion-turned-retirement marks the third.

These moves are only made more contentious by the mayor’s unwillingness to fully explain himself. In the midst of and following each, Donaldson has assured people that he considers things carefully before taking action, and that the city needs to “make changes.”

That’s an opening statement, not a full explanation; and the mayor needlessly risks permanently fracturing his relationship with both council and the public by refusing to go further and share in detail his vision of Butler’s path forward.

Now is the time: finish this argument, clear the air, and show residents that their elected officials are dealing with the pressing issues facing the city.