I think it's always a good idea for a newspaper to inquire about financial details when a top public official is asked to resign.

That's why I requested the employment agreement between the city of Collinsville and Robert Knabel, who resigned as city manager on Nov. 18. I made that request under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

As a follow-up, I then requested the dollar figures corresponding to the provisions of the agreement.

Knabel was paid $93,790 to resign after five years and 2 months of service. His annual salary was $108,110.

The payout was not recently negotiated. It is spelled out in the 2006 employment agreement between Knabel and the city.

According to that agreement, the council could fire Knabel at any time — with one exception, which I'll get to later.

The city would not have had to pay Knabel a cent if it had "just cause" to fire him. That's defined as "acts involving moral turpitude or conduct unbecoming an officer of the city."

If Knabel had voluntarily resigned to take another job, for example, he would have had to give the city 30 days notice. Although he would have gotten paid for unused sick and vacation time, he would not have been paid six months of his salary.

But since elected officials asked him to resign, without just cause, they had to pay him six months salary, or $54,055.

It also paid him $25,312 for 487 hours of unused sick time.

It also paid him $14,423 for 277 1/2 hours of unused vacation time.

In November Mayor John Miller told Journal reporter Ramona Sanders that he would be the designated spokesman for the City Council in this matter and as such he would not provide details of why Knabel was asked to resign.

You pay a man $93,790 in public funds to go away and then won't say why?

Knabel told the Journal in November his resignation was a mutual decision. (As I said, if Knabel resigned voluntarily he would not have received the severance settlement he did.)

"I guess I would say that the City Council and I have, over the past several months, kind of been on different pages, not agreeing on our approach," he told the Journal in November. "We really platueaued in terms of our progress and where we were going."

Knabel, 61, also said at the time he was not sure if he would pursue public service.

A month later he was one of two finalists for the city manager position in Carbondale, a job that reportedly offered a salary of $120,000. In early Januray the Carbondale City Council selected the other candidate.

I tried to reach Knabel for comment for this story but he did not return my call.

I cannot shed light on why Knabel was asked to resign. But after reading his employment agreement I can shed light on when he was asked to resign: "The City Council may not terminate the services of the City Manager without just cause ... within six months following a municipal election."

The purpose of that clause is to prevent a new council majority from firing the city manager seconds after being sworn into office.

Since the most recent election was April 5, 2011, the earliest the City Council could have asked Knabel to resign was Oct. 5.

In the April election Miller won re-election as did Councilwoman Liz Dalton. Mike Tognarelli was elected to his first term. Tognarelli once worked under Knabel as the city's street director. He retired after 37 years with the city after Knabel restructured the street department.

Tognarelli tells me the fact that Knabel restructured his department had nothing to do with why he ran for office or why Knabel was asked to resign.

"I was there 37 years and I decided to retire," Tognarelli says.

I ask why Knabel was fired.

"There are a lot of things put together," he says. "It was not just one thing. It was a lot of things over a period of time."

I have never worked for a public entity. In fact, I've rarely worked in a management position. So I couldn't even guess as to what the standard benefits were back in 2006 to lure a topnotch candidate for city administrator.

But I can say that when the city negotiates its next contract — facing the economic realities of 2012 — it should look long and hard at allowing an employee to accumulate 61 days of unused sick time and 34 1/2 days of unused vacation time. At $51.97 an hour that added up to a very generous bundle of cash.

I'm not allowed to carry over unused time like that. Are you?

POKIN AROUND Steve Pokin is a columnist for the Suburban Journals. He can be reached at spokin@yourjournal.com or by phone at 618-344-0264, ext. 126. His column is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PokinAround.