Detroit (WWJ) -- Detroit City Council voted '"yes" Tuesday on three resolutions aimed at removing Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from office.
One resolution calls for the council to begin proceedings to force Kilpatrick out of office. The second asks Governor Granholm to remove the mayor under state law for misconduct. And the third censures the mayor, but leaves him in office.
Council members voted 5-4 to begin forfeiture of office proceedings against Kilpatrick. On a separate 5-4 vote, they approved asking Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to terminate Kilpatrick's hold on the mayor's office. A third vote - to censure the mayor - passed on a 7-2 vote.
Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel called it a "sad day, a difficult day."
"Enough is enough, the mayor and his administration need to be crystal clear that accepting responsibility for choices and actions that you take is inherent to being an elected official," Cockrel said.
Forfeiture proceedings are to begin June 13th.
Mayor Kilpatrick has said in the past he has no plans to resign.
Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams called the forfeiture vote "another meaningless gesture on their part.''
"They can't remove the mayor. They have no legal authority,'' Adams said. "This goes well past where they need to be. He was elected by the voters of Detroit, not by the council.''
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.
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.
Governor Jennifer Granholm's office issued a statement that read: "Because the law prescribes a potential role for the governor, we are not going to comment on the council's actions today. We do not want to compromise the process."
During the public comment session before the vote, Detroiters had plenty to say Tuesday morning. Among the comments:
"I think it's time, and the council should be commended for taking the top vote to remove this mayor and saying, 'No.'"
"Instead of asking the mayor to step down, I would like to ask that all but three of city council to step down, so that we don't have to go through a lot of paperwork to get you out of here."
On Monday, council members spent the day debating the merits of the three recommendations made by special attorney Bill Goodman.
Goodman, told council there are a number of issues with forfeiture.
"Time, money, resources, ambiguity in the charter language" are all potential hangups with the process, according to Goodman.
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