Houston Mayor resignsin a surprise move

HOUSTON — In a surprise about-face Thursday evening, embattled Houston Mayor Roger Purcell resigned as mayor.

The move came at a Houston City Council meeting when Purcell, who is also a council member, presented a letter outlining his resignation, said Councilwoman Virgie Thompson. The move affects Purcell’s status of mayor only; he will remain on the council.

The move was especially unexpected because Purcell, under pressure to resign by recall group Houstons for Integrity, has maintained his intention to remain the city’s mayor, Thompson said.

“He said he would fight (the recall) to the end, possibly in court,” she said, adding Purcell did not outline any reasons for his resignation. “He did not make any statement as to why, he just said he was resigning his seat as mayor, but not on the council.”

An attempt to reach Purcell late Thursday was unsuccessful. During his time as mayor, Purcell and the city made news for numerous incidents. Those include the mayor allegedly driving erratically and running flashing lights on a police vehicle while driving to Fairbanks and the police department shooting eight dogs at the city’s overcrowded animal shelter.

Thompson suspects an impending recall election led to Purcell’s resignation. In his letter, the mayor resigns effective 10 p.m. Monday. The recall election was set for Tuesday. It’s a move Thompson said cheats the Houston community from making a statement about Purcell as mayor.

“The basic reason for that is the community has gone through this whole process of the recall election,” she said.

For Julia Normand, Thursday’s announcement was a blow. As chairperson for Houstons For Integrity, she said she’s confident Purcell would have lost big on Tuesday.

The resignation “is typical of him,” she said. “I challenged him a couple months ago to resign and save us the money of an election. He said, ‘No, I’m not resigning.’ But he waited until today to do it, probably knowing that the ads (publicizing the election) had to be into the papers by yesterday.”

Losing the $700 or so spent on local advertising is nothing compared to having the recall go forward, she said.

“We want it to go on so he will have a black mark on his name and not be able to destroy another town somewhere in Alaska or run for the state Legislature,” Normand said. “We want it on his record that he was recalled as mayor.”

Up next for the council, including Purcell, is another meeting June 24 to pick a new mayor, Thompson said, adding that Purcell is not eligible to be chosen again.

Given the makeup of the city council, which generally has four Purcell supporters and two detractors, the odds are “pretty high” Houston may have another controversial mayor.

“There are a couple on the council who are really close to Roger,” she said. “If they were to become mayor, it would be pretty much the same has having Roger.”

See Sunday’s Frontiersman for more on this story.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.

HOW THEY VOTED

Houston City Council members on whether or not to accept Roger Purcell’s resignation as mayor, effective 10 p.m. Monday:

• Lance Wilson, Yes

• Virgie Thompson, No

• Ruth Blanchard, Yes

• Natasha Schachle, No

• Lee Himes, Yes

• Rosemary Burnett, Yes