The figure is revealed in the council's draft annual report which is due to be tabled at Monday night's meeting.

The draft report was released with Monday's agenda a short time ago.

Councillors voted 4-3 at a special meeting on July 13 to terminate Peter Schneider's contract as CEO. He had been in the job for 18 months.

Councillors have been unable to release the cost due to confidentiality reasons. But the figure is contained in the draft report, saying the contract of a "key management personnel was terminated with immediate effect" at a special council meeting on July 13.

The $364,000 was made up of $337,000 in termination benefits, $2000 in post employment benefits and $25,000 in short-term benefits.

The amount is believed to be about 12 months worth with the annual report listing the highest paid employee at the council in the previous financial year earning a remuneration package of between $350,000 and $359,000.

Cr Sue Cassidy said she was pleased the termination amount paid to the previous CEO had finally been declared in the 2019/20 financial figures and that the community did not have to wait until the 2020/21 figures were revealed.

"With the confidentiality clause of the contract, we councillors could not discuss the amount until this was revealed publicly," she said.

"I have never been comfortable with this, but it had to be legally done this way.

"As we know, all it does is cause innuendo and false accusations within the community."

Cr Cassidy said Warrnambool City Council was a large business organisation and, as a business owner, it was never pleasant to terminate a staff member.

"If this happens within my business, it is my decision and my money that is at stake," she said.

"As councillors, to remove the only person that we directly employ, community money is involved. Therefore, it was an extremely hard decision for me personally to make, but, I stand by my decision, I know it was the right business decision for Warrnambool going forward."

Cr Cassidy said acting CEO Vikki King had taken on a dual role and would save council around $250,000 over the next 12 months, something she told The Standard last week.

"Taking into account what has been paid out, it has softened the blow significantly," she said.

"Vicki has combined this role previously and her knowledge and understanding of the position is exactly what is needed at this time."

"Finally, contrary to what has been repeatedly reported on social media during this decision, no legal fees were charged by our solicitors."

Cr David Owen said he accepted full responsibility for his decision, as difficult as it was.

"I lost a lot of sleep making the decisions, I'm sleeping much better now.

"I really do feel it was the right thing to do.

"As a business owner it taught me that at times it's better to pay someone out rather than lose other good staff, and also it improves the culture of the workplace."

Cr Kylie Gaston said it was undeniably a significant payout.

"It's something we would have rather avoided and it's unfortunate it came to this conclusion," Cr Gaston said.

"I remain convinced we did the right thing.

"That said, I regret disappointing our community and the upheaval it has caused."

Cr Mike Neoh said that sometimes you had to make hard decisions in the long-term best interests of the city.

"It may be difficult to swallow short-term but the council as a collective have decided to think about the medium to long-term," he said.

Mayor Tony Herbert and Mr Schneider were contacted for comment.

Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.