DETROIT (AP) -- The City Council put aside more than three months of internal bickering and hand-wringing, narrowly approving efforts that take the first step toward removing popular Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who faces perjury and other charges related to explicit text messages sent to a former aide.
A packed council chambers hushed as the nine council members cast their votes Tuesday on a measure to ask Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to step in and remove Kilpatrick for misconduct -- something the governor has said she is unwilling to do while the criminal case proceeds.
When the roll was called, it had passed 5-4.
Within minutes, the council again voted 5-4 to begin forfeiture of office proceedings against Kilpatrick.
A third vote -- a nonbinding measure to censure the mayor -- passed 7-2.
But in a dramatic moment, as council members prepared to adjourn until later in the afternoon, Councilwoman JoAnn Watson asked if her affirmative votes on the two removal measures could be reconsidered. The council adjourned, but after an hour-long wait Watson decided to withdraw the motion to reconsider her votes.
"I think it places additional pressure on the mayor to consider making a move," Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. told reporters after the council's action ended for the day.
Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams called the forfeiture vote "another meaningless gesture" by the council.
"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."
Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said the group simply did what many residents have been asking since excerpts of sexually explicit text messages between Kilpatrick and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty first were published in January and a confidentiality agreement referencing those text messages and linked to a whistleblowers' settlement was made known.
"There are a lot of people whose position to me has been whatever it takes, we need to get the city moving forward," Sheila Cockrel said. "In order to do that, as tragic as it is, this enormously talented, gifted, charismatic politician, who cannot accept responsibility and will not operate within the frame of the rule of law, has got to go.
"That's what people here say to me on a regular basis. 'When are you guys going to do something?' We've done it here today."
But how the council would vote on each of the three measures had been in doubt since Monday when they approved putting them on Tuesday's agenda.
Watson had said Monday that she favored forfeiture of office. She voted for all three measures before dropping the potential bombshell of reconsidering those votes.
A very nervous Watson later explained to reporters in her office that she was given a note that led her to believe Kilpatrick may have been considering an earlier request she personally made asking him to step down.
Watson said she had spoken with the mayor before the start of Tuesday's meeting, and had several conversations with him over the weekend asking that he resign.
"The best scenario out of all this challenge is for the mayor to resign," she said. "No one wants to see a city mayor being put out of office. It is not something that brings any positive vibes for anyone on the city council."
But Dan Webb, one of Kilpatrick's attorneys, later said the mayor has had no intention of voluntarily leaving the office he's held for the past six years.
The Wayne County prosecutor's office charged Kilpatrick and 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.
Granholm's office declined to comment on the council's actions.
"Because the law prescribes a potential role for the governor, we are not going to comment on the council's actions today," spokeswoman Liz Boyd said. "We do not want to compromise the process."
Council attorney William Goodman said forfeiture proceedings could begin as early as next month. Goodman already is preparing packages to submit to Granholm, Ken Cockrel Jr. said.
"From our standpoint, these are two steps we felt we had to take," he said.
Relations between the council and the mayor's office had been strained even before the scandal broke. Now, the Kilpatrick case has overshadowed city budget negotiations and the proposed sale of Detroit's half of a busy and lucrative international tunnel linking the city to Canada.
If Kilpatrick is forced from office, council President Ken Cockrel Jr. will assume the mayor's seat and council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers would take over as council president.
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