So sad to see you go.

That was them message from Bainbridge city councilmembers Tuesday night as they gave a fond farewell to Councilman Matthew Tirman, who announced earlier this month that he would be resigning his South Ward council seat Feb. 28.

Tirman was honored at this week’s council meeting, and Mayor Leslie Schneider recalled how Tirman’s resignation announcement two weeks earlier had left the entire council shocked.

“I will remember your passion for affordable housing, traffic calming, sustainable transportation and for generally being a very practical voice for city policy,” Schneider told Tirman.

“I’m just really sad to see Matt go,” noted Councilman Joe Deets. “Matt’s just been a super colleague to have on board.”

Deets and Tirman joined the council at the same time, as they were both elected during the November 2017 election.

“We don’t always vote on the same side. But, you know, frankly, that’s fine,” Deets added. “It really doesn’t matter, in my view, how one votes. It’s how well you work with others. And Matt’s been an exceptional colleague. You really raised the bar.”

Tirman is the first person to resign from the city council since the departure of Mike Scott, who stepped down in March 2018 after he was appointed as a judge in King County Superior Court by Gov. Jay Inslee.

After extended accolades from the council and audience at Tuesday’s meeting, Tirman said he’d learned a lot while serving in the District 3 council position.

One lesson was to put himself in other people’s shoes, he said. Tirman noted that he had always thought of himself as an in-tune person, emotionally, but discovered his perception was a bit off when he joined the city council with Deets and Councilwoman Rasham Nassar two years ago.

“I had to do a lot of learning,” he said.

“It’s sad to depart today. I would have hoped we would have finished our four years together,” Tirman added.

Even so, Tirman said the council should be proud of what it’s achieved since then.

He praised the leadership of City Manager Morgan Smith and Medina while he was mayor, as well as the dedication of city staff, and admitted his impression of city hall as an outsider had changed greatly since he became a councilmember.

“I will look back on these two years with a great deal of fondness,” Tirman said. “I’m going to miss you all very much.”

In an earlier interview with the Review, Tirman said his resignation wasn’t prompted by a single issue or a dispute over policy. There was no straw that broke the camel’s back.

Instead, Tirman said he was trying to bring the priorities in his life back into balance, including being “more present in my family’s life.”

Being a councilmember requires 15 to 20 hours of work a week, he said. Tirman gave himself the grade of a “solid D” for his past five to six months on the council.

“That’s a hard pill to swallow when you really love the job and you enjoy the output of it,” Tirman said.

His resignation will give the council the chance to find someone who is more aligned with the new direction they are going, he said.

“There is a drift toward the squeaky wheel getting the grease and trying to address the problem of the day on the dais,” he said.

That, however, was unrelated to why he was resigning, Tirman stressed.

The council will talk in the coming weeks about how to fill the vacancy that will be left by Tirman’s resignation.

Councilmembers are expected to discuss a timeline and a process for appointing a new councilmember at its study session Tuesday, March 3.