The Huffington Post reports that the Detroit City Council has voted Saunteel Jenkins as council president and Andre Spivey as president pro tem. Jenkins, who was first elected to council in 2009, replaces Charles Pugh. Pugh was stripped of both his authority and his salary by emergency manager Kevyn Orr after Orr denied Pugh’s request for a medical leave and Pugh declined to show up at several council meetings.
Pugh has been accused of an inappropriate relationship with a high school student he mentored. Pugh has yet to respond to the allegations and beyond having been spotted in Seattle a few weeks ago, has been out of the public eye.
The council’s previous president pro tem, Gary Brown, and councilman Kwame Kenyatta have both recently stepped down. Brown has taken a job as Orr’s chief compliance officer.
Kenyatta had been a vocal opponent of the emergency manager’s appointment.
Orr recently wrote that the vacant council seats “shall be filled by duly elected and qualified individuals through the November 2013 election process.”
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