By COREY WILLIAMS

Associated Press Writer

DETROIT — The City Council on Tuesday postponed a vote on a resolution that would ask embattled Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to step down.

Some council members said they needed more information before they could decide what to do. The vote has been rescheduled for March 18.

The resolution, introduced by Councilman Kwame Kenyatta, is a “no-confidence” vote and cannot force Kilpatrick to resign.

“We cannot afford to not speak. We cannot afford not to act,” Kenyatta said.

Kilpatrick repeatedly has said he will not step down. Messages seeking comment were left Tuesday with Kilpatrick’s office.

The vote to table the motion was 6-3.

Some on the council accuse Kilpatrick of hiding the truth behind a settlement agreement in an $8.4 million whistle-blowers’ lawsuit.

A prosecutor is investigating whether Kilpatrick and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty lied under oath during the trial.

They denied having a romantic relationship, but embarrassing and sexually explicit text messages left on Beatty’s city-issued pager apparently contradict their testimony.

References to those messages were part of a confidential agreement in the lawsuit settlement.

Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. said Tuesday the council’s attorney, William Goodman, will subpoena the city’s communications carrier, SkyTel, for the text messages.

The text messages first were reported on by the Detroit Free Press in January. References to the messages were included in a confidentiality agreement with former officers who filed the whistle-blowers’ suit. That agreement was signed by Kilpatrick and Beatty, giving their approval of the $8.4 million settlement amount.

The council also is conducting its own independent investigation into the agreements that led it approve the whistle-blowers’ settlement.

Although he voted to postpone the resolution vote, Cockrel said he supported its intention.

“I felt the timing of the resolution wasn’t necessarily good,” he told council members. “It put us in the position of putting the cart before the horse in terms of Mr. Goodman’s investigation.

“We have seen overwhelming evidence that attorneys in the law department may have acted inappropriately, and outside attorneys may have acted inappropriately,” Cockrel said. “This is a mayor who lied on the witness stand. There is a value of looking beneath the surface of the water to see how big the iceberg is and what else is there.”

The support Kenyatta expected for the resolution did not develop, he told reporters following the vote.

He doesn’t expect it to come back before the council on March 18.

“It’s not postponed. It’s over. What you see today is the defeat of this resolution,” he said.

Kenyatta said the mayor’s office called council members “until the ends of the night” Monday to change support for the resolution.

“I got calls,” he said. “Just the mayor’s people saying take it off the table and wait for the prosecutor.”

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has said she expects to have a decision by mid-March on whether to charge Kilpatrick and Beatty with perjury.

Cockrel has said Detroit’s City Charter provides for the mayor to be removed if convicted of a felony while in office. Cockrel would complete Kilpatrick’s term if he vacates the mayor’s office.