Detroit Council Votes to Remove Mayor

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Detroit Council Votes to Remove Mayor AP Posted: 2008-05-15 11:48:18 DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit City Council has voted 5-4 to begin a process aimed at removing Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from office for his role in a text-messaging sex scandal.

Council members also voted 5-4 this week to ask Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm to remove Kilpatrick and voted 7-2 to publicly censure him.

Kwame Kilpatrick Pictures

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  ** FILE ** Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy addresses the media in her office in Detroit, Friday, Jan. 25, 2008. The investigation into whether Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former top aide committed perjury or other crimes during testimony in a highly publicized whistle-blowers' trial is all part of the job for the Wayne County prosecutor. And she doesn't even consider it the toughest assignment she's had since she's been in the prosecutor's office. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, file)

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  Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick addresses the media during a news conference in Detroit, Tuesday, March 18, 2008. A nearly unified City Council voiced its displeasure with Kilpatrick on Tuesday, calling on the scandal-tainted mayor to resign. A resolution, which passed on a 7-1 vote in the early afternoon, was more of a "no-confidence" vote. The council doesn't have the power to force Kilpatrick to step down. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

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  Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick addresses the media during a news conference in Detroit, Tuesday, March 18, 2008. A nearly unified City Council voiced its displeasure with Kilpatrick on Tuesday, calling on the scandal-tainted mayor to resign. A resolution, which passed on a 7-1 vote in the early afternoon, was more of a "no-confidence" vote. The council doesn't have the power to force Kilpatrick to step down. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

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  ** FILE ** Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox speaks during an interview in this April 11, 2005, file photo, in Lansing, Mich. Cox said Wednesday, March 12, 2008, that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick should resign because he's a liar and a race-baiter "on par with David Duke and George Wallace," and no longer fit for office. (AP Photo/Al Goldis, file)

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  Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gives his State of the City address in Detroit, Tuesday, March 11, 2008. A prosecutor says she will announce in two weeks whether she will file perjury charges against the mayor and his former top aide. The case stems from a criminal probe of whether Kilpatrick lied under oath when he denied an affair with former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty that was revealed in the text messages. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

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  Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gives his seventh State of the City address in Detroit, Michigan, March 11, 2008. Embattled Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick on Tuesday said scandals threatening to derail his second term amounted to a "hate-driven, bigoted assault" against him and vowed to stay in office and fight for sweeping investment plans for the city. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook (UNITED STATES)

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  Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick points towards his family before the start of his seventh State of the City address in Detroit, Michigan, March 11, 2008. Embattled Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick on Tuesday said scandals threatening to derail hissecond term amounted to a "hate-driven, bigoted assault" against him and vowed to stay in office and fight for sweeping investment plans for the city. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook (UNITED STATES)

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  The parents and sister of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (L), Ayanna (C) and Bernard Kilpatrick stand before the start of Mayor Kilpatrick's State of the City address in Detroit, Michigan, March 11, 2008. Embattled Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick on Tuesday said scandals threatening to derail his second term amounted to a "hate-driven, bigoted assault" against him and vowed to stay in office and fight for sweeping investment plans for the city. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook (UNITED STATES)

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  DETROIT - MARCH 11: Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings says the Pledge of Alligiance before Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's State of the City address March 11, 2008 in Detroit, Michigan. Several members of the city council protested the Mayor by sitting in the audience instead of sitting on stage with the Mayor. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

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  Protestors demonstrate outside of Orchestra Hall where Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was giving his State of the City address March 11, 2008 in Detroit, Michigan. Four members of the nine-member council declined to take their customary seats onstage with the mayor, who is in the midst of a text-messaging scandal involving charges of sexual misconduct and of perjury related to a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by former police officers against the city. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY == (Photo credit should read BILL PUGLIANO/AFP/Getty Images)

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A message seeking comment has been left with a Kilpatrick spokeswoman. The mayor's office has said the council's actions are politically motivated.

Sexually explicit text messages between the mayor and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty were revealed earlier this year. They contradicted testimony the two gave during a whistle-blowers' lawsuit, when they denied having a romantic relationship.

The Wayne County prosecutor's office has charged the two with perjury and obstruction of justice.

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DETROIT (AP) - The Detroit City Council has spent weeks debating what to do with scandal-plagued Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick: force his ouster or slap him on the wrist.

That talk could lead to action Tuesday when the nine-member group votes on three resolutions that may ultimately remove a defiant Kilpatrick from the office he's held for six years.

Council members are to consider three possibilities: Remove Kilpatrick from office themselves, ask Gov. Jennifer Granholm to do it, or publicly censure the mayor.

The relationship between the Council and the mayor's office was strained even before revelations earlier this year that he may have misled them to approve an $8.4 million whistle-blowers' settlement.

Council members say they were unaware of a confidentiality agreement that Kilpatrick signed that kept secret references to intimate and sexually explicit text messages between the mayor and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty.

Excerpts of those messages were published in January by the Detroit Free Press and contradicted testimony Kilpatrick and Beatty gave during the whistle-blowers' trial, when they denied having a romantic relationship.

The Wayne County prosecutor's office charged the two with perjury, misconduct in office and obstruction of justice on March 24, less than a week after the Council voted 7-1 on a nonbinding resolution asking Kilpatrick to resign. Kilpatrick's office has said the Council's actions are politically motivated.

The Council agrees that Kilpatrick violated the City Charter, but otherwise the group is split on what action to take. Some favor one resolution over another, while others suggested they would approve two or more of the options.

President Pro Tem Monica Conyers has been critical of the Council's efforts and said she prefers to wait for the criminal case against Kilpatrick to proceed through the courts.

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said Monday that she favored forfeiture of office, while Barbara-Rose Collins adamantly said she would not support asking Granholm to get involved.

"I think it's the wrong thing to do," Collins said. "I don't need a governor coming to Detroit, telling the people who elected somebody that he is not worthy of the office."

State law allows the governor to remove an elected official from office for a number of reasons, including official misconduct, willful neglect of duty or a felony conviction. Granholm has said she wants to allow the legal process to play out.

"An extreme situation like this calls for an extreme measure," Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. said. "I do support taking it to the governor. That could potentially save a lot of time and a lot of money."

If the Council moves against the mayor with forfeiture of office proceedings, the move could end up in court and take about a year and a half - if there are no appeals by Kilpatrick or if those appeals are expedited, council attorney William Goodman said.

Goodman also warned the cost could be upward of $250,000, a figure the Council's research and analysis director put at closer to $500,000. That cost will be another burden for a cash-strapped city, which is among the nation's leaders in foreclosures and unemployment.

The Kilpatrick case has overshadowed city budget negotiations and the proposed sale of Detroit'shalf of a busy and lucrative international tunnel linking the city to Canada.

"I do not believe that any City Council in the past has had to deal with an issue of this magnitude," Detroit historian Michael Smith said of the Kilpatrick affair. "This may be the largest political issue the City Council has ever faced."

If Kilpatrick is forced from office, Cockrel will assume the mayor's seat and Conyers would take over as Council president.

But Cockrel and Conyers - wife of powerful Michigan Democratic Congressman John Conyers - have said they would abstain from any direct vote on removing Kilpatrick.

"I want to do this the right way," Conyers said.

On the Net:

http://www.ci.detroit.mi.us/legislative/citycouncil/default.htm