Portsmouth council asks for mayor’s resignation

In the ongoing saga of Portsmouth Mayor James Holley, the remaining members of City Council have asked for him to retire immediately. Some citizens have begun circulating a petition (pdf) asking the mayor to resign. The petition, however, is not a recall petition.

The mayor refuses to resign. In a statement he read last night, he doesn’t apologize for his most recent behavior and calls himself a statesman. He says that it was the voters who put him in office and they should be the ones to remove him. Without asking, he assumes that he will be forgiven.

Thanks again for that probably a bad, bad decision that I made, but I’ve been forgiven before, so I look forward to your forgiveness again

I applaud the Portsmouth Council for asking for the Mayor’s resignation. I would hope that they are willing to take this a step further and lead the efforts to recall.