A timeline from the day Mack was convicted through yesterday, when he was removed from office by a state judge.
FEB. 7: Mayor Tony Mack is found guilty by a jury in his federal corruption case. Convicted on charges of extortion, bribery, wire fraud and mail fraud around 5:30 p.m., the mayor and his brother walk out into the darkness without saying a word. Plans for a 7 p.m. swearing-in for Council President George Muschal as acting mayor are abandoned when officials realize Mack hasn’t resigned.
FEB. 8: As deputy attorneys general finish a complaint seeking an order of forfeiture to throw Mack out of office, Muschal remains on 24-hour standby in case of Mack’s resignation or removal.
FEB. 10: The state Attorney General’s Office files its complaint seeking Mack’s removal from office with Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson. Burst pipes and a heater malfunction render Mack’s West State Street rental property uninhabitable, adding to problems that include a long-running foreclosure by the bank and a sheriff’s sale that is scheduled for next month.
FEB. 11: Mack’s police driver is reassigned to patrol. Tom Neff, the director of the Division of Local Government Services for the state Department of Community Affairs, reaches out to Muschal for a meeting.
FEB. 12: Jacobson gives Mack 12 days to respond in writing to the state complaint. She sets a hearing for Mack’s removal for Feb. 26. A special council meeting to vote on Mack’s successor, scheduled with the anticipation he would be out of office by then, proves unnecessary. Muschal and Business Administrator Sam Hutchinson debate who has the authority to shut city buildings the next day when heavy snowfall is expected, and Hutchinson says Mack ended up closing the city.
FEB. 13: Mack gets paid. His $126,000 salary means a check of $4,800 before taxes every two weeks.
FEB. 17: The city is off for Presidents Day, but some time over the long weekend Mack calls and asks for his police driver back.
FEB. 18: Mack returns to work at City Hall, and makes a brief and bizarre visit to a city council meeting. The impromptu appearance bewilders council members. Mack says nothing and walks out a back door when approached by reporters. In an e-mail statement sent minutes before he arrived, Mack said he would not be resigning and planned to fight the attorney general’s motion.
FEB. 20: Mack writes a letter on mayoral stationery to Jacobson, asking her to order city council to authorize him a lawyer paid for by the city to fight his removal. Jacobson denies his request. The state Department of Community Affairs receives assurances that the detective “who was chauffeuring the mayor has been reassigned to police work.”
FEB. 24: Mack, who says he will be representing himself at the upcoming hearing, argues in a court filing that his guilty verdict was not a conviction, and he should remain in office until his May 14 sentencing in federal court. He argues his pension is a 401(k) and not subject to being taken away.
FEB. 25: The state Attorney General’s Office says Mack is “plainly wrong” in its response brief.
FEB. 26: Mack is removed from office by Jacobson. Council President George Muschal is sworn in as acting mayor.
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