HARRISBURG, Ill. - A local city's treasurer goes out of town on vacation, only to find his job will not be waiting on him when he gets home. Thursday night the Harrisburg City Council fired Treasurer Charles Will.

Will said he was blindsided by the move, after spending a little more than a year on the job.

Some council members cite a difference of opinion as the reason for the split, but Will believes the timing is suspect.

Three council members voted for the treasurer's firing, one of them abstained from that vote, and the mayor voted against it.

"I had no prior knowledge whatsoever," said Will.

Local 6 talked to fired treasurer Charles Will Friday by phone from his vacation in Ohio.

"To apparently be dismissed for what may be political issues, I don't know," he said.

City finance commissioner Ron Crank said Will didn't do anything criminal, he just didn't see eye-to-eye with the council.

"He wanted to go in a different direction than what the council wanted to go in, and we decided it was time to depart," said Crank.

Will said getting the boot came out of the blue.

"Going in a different direction to my estimation is not a very authoritative explanation," he said.

Will claims officials didn't like his plans to integrate the city's water and sewer funds into the general ledger, a plan he says the council resisted and may have led to his termination.

Crank wouldn't get into any specifics about why Will was let go.

But Harrisburg Mayor Eric Gregg said the hasty firing may not have been the best move.

"That's something I voiced to the council, that I certainly wanted to handle this in a different way," said Gregg.

Will said he plans to discuss his dismissal with an attorney.

Crank told us the city's deputy treasurer will fill the job on a temporary basis. She's been offered the position full-time but has not made a decision yet.