Part-time Ferguson mayor in full-time spotlight
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FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — In the days since the release of a Justice Department report that found widespread racial bias in the Ferguson Police Department, the mayor of the St. Louis suburb has become a part-time public servant in a full-time spotlight.
he attention has only intensified as six city employees — most notably the police chief and city manager — have been fired or stepped down.
But Mayor James Knowles III remains, making just $4,200 a year in a job he called basically ceremonial before a white police officer shot an unarmed black 18-year-old in August, prompting weeks of sometimes-violent protests and the Justice Department inquiry. He's now so involved that he's opened a City Hall office and insists he will stay to see the city through the changes it must make.
On Friday, five residents filed an affidavit seeking to recall Knowles. They have 60 days to collect enough signatures — 15 percent of registered voters in the last mayoral election — to qualify for a special election.
Knowles said he has no plans to step aside.
"Obviously there are people on the street calling for my resignation, but my voicemail, my text messages and my Facebook are full with literally hundreds of people who want me to stay," Knowles said in an Associated Press interview Friday. "Somebody has to show leadership, and I'm focused on how we can move this community forward."
He argues that Ferguson's city manager form of government made him more figurehead than administrator, leading the city council but lacking the power to do much else. But critics say he must have known about the lax police oversight, racial profiling and profit-driven court practices cited in the Justice Department report released March 4.
"I want the mayor out," said Kayla Reed, 25, of the Organization for Black Struggle. "True accountability means clean house, top to bottom." ...
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