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Posted: Wednesday, 14 May 2008 5:55PM

Governor To Get Request To Remove Mayor

Detroit (WWJ)  -- Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm could have a request by the end of the week to remove Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from office.  But a group of state lawmakers will urge her to stay out of the issue.

Detroit City Council's special attorney Bill Goodman told WWJ's Vickie Thomas Wednesday morning he'll have all the evidence ready and to the governor in the next three or four days. 

"I'm sure she'll talk to her lawyer and they'll say advise the mayor that the charges have been filed and see if he has a response to them,"  Goodman said. 

Goodman says its up to the Governor and her lawyers to determine if they want to hear from some of the witnesses in the scandal.

City Council will begin forfeiture hearings June 13th.  Goodman says they could be wrapped up in a couple weeks.

"I think its unfortunate, I think its unnecessary turmoil...it would make life easier for everyone if he did what Governor Spitzer did and just stepped down," Goodman said in referring to New York Governor Eliot Spitzer who resigned after he was named in a prostitution sting.  

A group of state lawmakers from Detroit will be asking the Governor Thursday to stay out of the text message scandal involving Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. 

WWJ Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick says Senator Hansen Clarke,  Representative Bert Johnson and other lawmakers will make a statement at the Capitol Building Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. regarding Governor Granholm's authority to remove Kilpatrick from office. 

Skubick says the lawmakers are expected to say the issue is a city, or home rule, issue and the governor shouldn't get involved.

The Wayne County prosecutor's office charged Kilpatrick and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty 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.

Excerpts of the text messages left on Beatty's city-issued pager were published in January by the Detroit Free Press. The pair had denied having a romantic relationship in sworn testimony at a civil trial involving police whistleblowers.

The whistleblowers' lawsuit and another case were settled for the $8.4 million, but council members say they were unaware of the confidentiality agreement Kilpatrick signed that kept references to the text messages secret.

Forfeiture proceedings could end up in court and be costly - presenting yet another burden for a cash-strapped city that is among the nation's leaders in foreclosures and unemployment.

State law allows the governor to remove an elected official from office for a number of reasons, but Granholm has said she wants to allow the legal process to play out.

Click here for articles related to the text message scandal.


© MMVIII WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
 
 
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