Facing the very real possibilities of removal from office, conviction of perjury, disbarment and imprisonment, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick remains confident that he’s “the best person for the job.”

In 2001, then-state Democratic House floor leader Kwame Kilpatrick told an interviewer that he was on a mission from God. The MetroTimes reported that Kilpatrick believed “the Almighty intends for him to become mayor of Detroit, where he hopes to lead the city into the promised land of prosperity.”

He became mayor of Detroit. But the mission now seems FUBAR. As all the world now knows, Kilpatrick lied under oath in order to cover up an extra-marital affair (and that's only the half of it).

At their meeting next Tuesday, the Detroit City Council will consider calling for Kilpatrick’s resignation. Their independent attorney, Bill Goodman, is studying the law to determine whether the council may evict the mayor if he hasn’t been convicted as a felon.

But the governor may remove any elected official accused in a sworn statement of official misconduct or willful neglect of duty. Last Thursday, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm urged the council to resolve the scandal as quickly as possible.

“None of this is good for the city or for the state," she said. "There is no way you can spin any of this to be positive."

A convention of 2,500 mayors which was to convene in Detroit in April will be held instead in New Orleans, depriving the city of much-needed income and national prestige. The decision to change venue was attributed to the scandal, suggested Vanessa Williams, executive director of the National Conference of Black Mayors.

For almost five years, Kilpatrick has resorted to increasingly desperate measures to keep his extra-marital affair with his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, out of the public eye. Though he continued to deny it, even under oath, Kilpatrick fired then-Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope, one of his bodyguards at the time, allegedly because they were conducting an investigation that threatened to reveal his illicit love affairs. The officers in turn sued the mayor, and last September a jury awarded them and their attorney, Mike Stefani, $6.5 million.

Despite the plaintiffs’ vindication in court, Kilpatrick and the City Council made a subsequent settlement for $8.4 million (over $9 million, including legal costs) with them and a third policeman who had filed suit separately. Since Kilpatrick was sued in his capacity as mayor, the costs are all to be borne by the public.

Announcing the surprise settlement, Kilpatrick told Detroiters last October,

Since the verdict, I've listened to pastors, business leaders and so many Detroiters who genuinely love and care about me and this city … I've humbly concluded that a settlement ... is the correct decision for my family and the entire Detroit community.

When the Free Press published Kilpatrick’s text messages, thereby not only embarrassing him and Beatty, but proving they had both lied under oath, Kilpatrick probably thought nothing worse could happen.

But last Wednesday the scandal grew an even uglier tentacle. The Michigan Supreme Court ordered the release of all documents connected with the affair, and the full story behind the settlement became known.

These documents reveal a deal between Kilpatrick, Beatty and the former cops. The agreement signed by the City Council was for public consumption. It makes no mention of the text messages. But the second, secret contract makes clear that Kilpatrick had asked the City Council to approve the additional cost of the settlement as hush money to insure that the text messages— even their very existence, because they constituted proof of Kilpatrick’s lies under oath— would ever see the light of day. The Council was not party to the second agreement and had no knowledge of it.

“I'm trying to figure out what document you're talking about,” said Kilpatrick on Thursday. “A lot of this inaccuracy and misreporting and misstating of the facts is unbelievable to me.”

When asked whether he would resign, Kilpatrick replied, “Nah. Not at all. I don't even understand how that is really in the public discussion.”