Spokane City Council asks mayor to resign

SPOKANE — Appearing yesterday before a nationwide audience on NBC's "Today" show, Spokane Mayor Jim West said that he will not resign after he was outed as a homosexual and that he voted against gay-rights bills in the Legislature because that is what his conservative district wanted.

In an advisory vote last night, just hours after West's television appearance, the Spokane City Council voted unanimously to ask him to resign. The 55-year-old mayor can be removed from office only by recall. A group of residents has begun circulating a recall petition. Members of the group did not immediately comment on West's appearance on the "Today" show.

"My mail and e-mails are running 2-1 in favor of me not resigning," West said in his first public interview since the allegations were raised in early May. "You should not be run out for simple allegations because then you could run anybody out of office."

West has been under fire since May 5, when The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported allegations that he sexually molested two teenage boys when he was a sheriff's deputy and Boy Scout leader in the late 1970s and early 1980s. West has vehemently denied those allegations.

The newspaper also reported that West trolled gay online chat rooms and offered city jobs and other perks to young men he met there. The FBI has launched an inquiry into whether he committed criminal acts with those offers. The city has appointed a commission to determine whether he violated policies against misuse of computers.

West has acknowledged he was a closeted homosexual, and has called himself the victim of a "brutal outing."

"I did have intimate relationships with both men and women," West said yesterday, talking about the period after his marriage ended nine years ago. "I am not going to go into my private life on national TV or psychoanalyze myself."

West, who was in New York on his way to attend a conference today and tomorrow in Tampa, Fla., told "Today" show co-host Matt Lauer that he wasn't being hypocritical when he opposed gay-rights bills during two decades as a Republican legislator.

"I voted to represent my legislative district in the Legislature. I was not an advocate," West said. "I was not a leader of the charge in any of those cases. Every representative and every senator from my district voted the way I voted."

West said he doubts he would have voted differently had he not been closeted.

"I am a conservative. I am not a closet liberal pretending to be a conservative," West said. "What is wrong with somebody having an alternative sexual orientation being a conservative? Can a ... gay or black be conservative? I think they can."

West predicted he will be exonerated by the FBI and city investigations.

"I haven't misused my office for personal gain," he said. "... I welcome those investigations because I believe they will clear me."

He told Lauer he expects more allegations to surface as political enemies "pile on."