Goodman to Focus on Granholm Hearings, Wait on Ouster Appeal

Detroit Free Press

Aug. 19--The Detroit City Council's independent attorney said today that he will recommend the council wait several weeks to appeal a judge's ruling Monday that the council lacks the authority to remove Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Bill Goodman said he will recommend the council eventually appeal the case, but the priority now is preparing for a Sept. 3 removal hearing before Gov. Jennifer Granholm, if she decides to order one against Kilpatrick.

"This is not an urgent problem for council," Goodman said of an appeal. "The urgent problem is for us to get ready for this governor's hearing."

Wayne County Circuit Judge Robert Ziolkowski ruled that the council failed to cite a section of the charter violated by the mayor where the penalty is specified as forfeiture, the procedure for removing an elected official in Detroit.

Goodman also has submitted 29 exhibits to the governor's office to back up the council's request that Granholm remove Kilpatrick. He said the exhibits, which were posted today on the governor's Web site, are similar to what he presented to the council during its investigative hearings in April.

They include a series of documents from the police whistle-blower settlement that is the basis for the council's removal request as well as the city's responses denying the Free Press, which had filed Freedom of Information Act requests for the settlement documents, access to all the materials.

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