Detroit City Council Votes: "Kwame Kilpatrick, Resign!"

To paraphrase President Gerald Ford, "our long local nightmare is over." Or maybe not. Today the Detroit city council voted overwhelmingly for a resolution asking Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to resign. Since the vote isn't binding, the Mayor wasn't impressed, complaining that "they spent a whole day on it," when in his humble opinion, "there are more important things."

The vote was a lopsided 7 to 1. Those in favor of the resolution were Ken Cockrel Jr. (Council President), Barbara-Rose Collins, Brenda Jones, Kwame Kenyatta, Alberta Tinsley-Talabi, Sheila Cockrel, and JoAnn Watson. The single vote in opposition was cast, predictably, by Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers who's husband, U.S. congressmen John Conyers, says "aye" to more bad bills than a pirate with a willie fetish. Councilwoman Martha Reeves (yes, as in "Martha and the Vandellas" Reeves) was absent due to illness.

The resolution gave us 33 reasons why the mayor should resign. Click here if you'd like to read them all. If you're just interested in the highlights: lying, incompetence, obfuscation and losing the city's trust. No mention of his hats or having a head disproportionately small for his body. And if that weren't enough, they also tacked on an addendum to have independent council “explore the proceedings by which the mayor may be removed from office” just in cast the mayor doesn't take their advice.

It is unlikely the mayor will take their advice. As he told a gathering of the press, "My reaction is, OK, now since it's over, it has no effect." Of course his tune may change next week when a decision is expected by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy on whether she will file criminal charges against the mayor for perjury. Then again, this is Kwame Kilpatrick.

As for the council . . . for now they can speak through the final words of their resolution

NOW THEREFORE BE IT,
RESOLVED, That the Detroit City Council, in the interest of preserving the integrity of city government, hereby calls for Kwame M. Kilpatrick to resign as Mayor of the City of Detroit forthwith.