LANSING – With the resignation of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Governor Jennifer Granholm said Thursday she hoped that a new chapter can begin for the state and city both, “to see this as an opportunity to build a great city and region together, city and suburb, east and west, north and south.”

With her statement, Granholm adjourned her hearing into the removal of Kilpatrick until September 22. If Kilpatrick leaves office on September 18, as his resignation letter says he will, then the hearings will be canceled, Granholm said.

As she ended the brief hearing, Granholm said the ongoing incident “had been difficult for all us. And I for one am glad this chapter is closed.”

Shortly afterwards, at a brief press conference in the Cadillac Place state office building in Detroit, Liz Boyd, Granholm’s spokesperson, said with the resignation of Kilpatrick the governor and the state can refocus attention on rebuilding the state’s economy.

The news followed Wednesday’s daylong hearing into a request by the Detroit City Council that she remove Kilpatrick for misconduct in office. She adjourned the Thursday hearing until one hour after court proceedings involving Kilpatrick.

Granholm reconvened the hearing shortly after noon and repeated the conditions of Kilpatrick’s plea agreement that was issued during the morning at Wayne Circuit Court.

Once the mayor’s office becomes vacant the proceeding to remove him ends, Granholm said, but she was not concluding the proceeding until Kilpatrick is actually out of office.

“Commentators and historians, I expect, will use the lessons of these difficult months to teach those young, future public servants about the importance of integrity and honor and duty to the public,” Granholm said. “When a public official violates that sacred trust, the violation and its consequences affect more than that individual. It affects us all.”

Now it is time for the city and the state to “write a new history for this great but embattled city and that the citizens of Detroit begin the healing process to move forward,” she said.

Calling on all persons to pray for the city and for Kilpatrick and his family, Granholm said, “In moments of great pain, no people are more compassionate and determined than Michigan citizens.”

Granholm did not answer questions from reporters, but Boyd said that Granholm was aware of the plea agreement before the proceedings took place in court. The governor met with attorneys from all sides in the matter, Boyd said. “The governor was well aware of the agreement.”

But she has not spoken with Kilpatrick since July, when they met to discuss options on redeveloping Cobo Convention Center.

Boyd said the governor has spoken with incoming Acting Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. The two have had a working relationship, she said, and they will meet soon to discuss issues.

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