While both Ellis and Johnson said they fully intend to complete their elected terms, the five-member council will have to appoint a new president and vice president at next month’s regular meeting.

Reached Tuesday by phone, both men said the town’s management structure – or lack thereof – played a role in their decisions to step down.

“The lack of daily management is huge,” said Johnson, whose announcement preceded Ellis’ Monday night.

Exeter has no town manager, administrator, or finance director. The town has less than 20 full-time employees and without a single, full-time go-to person overseeing the town’s daily affairs, Johnson said getting simple questions answered can be a “daily battle.”

Johnson also believes the town’s current management structure prevents departments from working together effectively.

Explaining his reasons for stepping down Ellis, who has served as council president for the past three years, said the “responsibilities [ as president] continue to increase.”

As council president, Ellis is the one to whom correspondences and inquiries are sent. He is also responsible for orchestrating the monthly meetings and moving them forward.

“It’s a really time consuming position,” Ellis said.

In addition to wanting more time to dedicate to personal affairs, Ellis said the town’s management style has become “a real source of frustration.”

Ellis said a “part-time management style” and a council that has one regular monthly meeting and then meets sporadically “is not effective.”

Johnson agreed, saying matters don’t always receive the timely attention they might deserve simply because there is no one available to address them.

Asked if he believed it was time for Exeter to consider creating a town manager’s position, Ellis said he thought Exeter’s situation might be more suited toward a “town administrator” – a position neighboring West Greenwich does have.

“We needed one five years ago,” Johnson said when asked the same question.

The councilmen cited such issues as years worth of unpaid, tangible taxes owed to the town, employee pension concerns and various accounting matters as areas that could have benefitted from having a full-time town manager or administrator.

While Ellis said there is a need for a town administrator, he said there is also an “immediate need” for a finance director.

After managing eight months without a town treasurer, the council did fill the position Monday, appointing Exeter resident Maria Lawler to the vacancy. And while Ellis believes Lawler, in collaboration with recently appointed deputy treasurer Joseph Gilles, will help the town, neither position is full-time.

The creation of a town administrator or manager’s position would require an amendment to the town charter and a Charter Review Commission is presently seated.

Councilman Johnson said while he believed the council and the Charter Review Commission might endorse the idea to create one position or the other, he wasn’t optimistic about odds of such an “expense” being receiving voter approval.

“We’ve been running cheap so far but it’s not going to work forever,” he said. “It’s a real problem for the town and it’s hurting us tremendously.”

Johnson said he wasn’t sure whether stepping down as vice president would make a difference in the director the town was headed.

“What we really need is proper, daily management.”