Detroit prepares for new leadership as Kilpatrick’s problems mount

With Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick facing felony charges, a City Council investigation and a recall petition, city leaders are moving to ensure a smooth transition if he’s forced out of office.

The city charter lays out a complicated succession plan that unfolds differently depending on when Kilpatrick goes. If he remains in office until April 13 – which seems likely – but leaves office later this year, a special election to fill his term will be held after the November election. That’s because April 13 is 30 days before the filing deadline for the fall election.

But if Kilpatrick manages to hang on until March 1, no special election will be held, because the regular mayoral election is in November 2009.

Any way you slice it, one thing is for sure: If Kilpatrick goes, under the city charter Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. will vault into the mayor’s office.

Continued -Cockrel, the subject of a flattering front-page profile in Monday’s Detroit Free Press, has said he has a 100-day emergency transition plan ready to go.

“I’ll be the statesman if it serves the purpose,” the Free Press quoted Cockrel as saying last month. “But if … playing the statesman role is not enough, and you have to get your hands dirty and be a fighter, then you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”

Each day that passes makes a Cockrel interim mayoralty seem more likely, as pressure builds on Kilpatrick to step down and events that could force him out gain momentum. Tuesday saw the City Council commence investigative hearings into why members were not told of a secret deal by Kilpatrick to settle a police whistle-blower lawsuit in order to prevent the release of text messages to and from his then-chief of staff, Christine Beatty. Mike Stefani, the lawyer for the former police officers who filed the lawsuit, testified that one of the mayor’s lawyers changed language in a draft agreement so that only the financial terms of the deal would be shared with the council.

The hearings aren’t expected to get any easier for Kilpatrick: City Attorney Valerie Colbert-Osamuede, who signed the deal to keep the text messages secret, has agreed to testify and will do so Friday.

Meanwhile, the Macomb County Board of Commissioners has said it will vote April 17 on a nonbinding resolution calling for Kilpatrick’s immediate resignation “to avoid any further economic damage to the region.”

Even if he manages to outmaneuver the City Council and his critics, a conviction on any of the eight felonies he’s been charged with – including perjury – means his removal under city and state law.

Yet Kilpatrick has vowed to remain in office, and he may have little incentive to leave of his own accord: Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said when she announced the charges against him that his resignation would not spare him a trial on the criminal charges.

“I don’t consider that to be a factor in which this case would be dismissed,” Worthy said.