The Detroit City Council voted today to launch a two-track effort to remove Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from office by both beginning its own process and asking Gov. Jennifer Granholm to oust him.

The vote was 5-4 as the council made a historic move to topple a mayor. But almost immediately after the vote was completed and as the council meeting was breaking up, the swing vote, Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, announced that she had just received a note from Kilpatrick and would be reconsidering her votes in favor of seeking the mayor’s removal.

After talking to the mayor this afternoon, she stuck with her vote in favor of his removal.

Monday, Watson took the lead in advocating for the forfeiture resolution, insisting that Special Counsel William Goodman draw up a forfeiture resolution.

Besides Watson, yes votes came Cockrel and council members Sheila Cockrel, Brenda Jones and Kwame Kenyatta. Voting no were Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers and council members Barbara-Rose Collins, Martha Reeves and Alberta Tinsley-Talabi.

Both processes are expected to take months. The council set an initial public hearing for its removal hearings of June 13.

The independent attorney hired by the council to assist with its investigation, Goodman, estimated that it would take two months for the council to complete removal hearings and then – if the council actually votes to oust Kilpatrick – another year for the mayor’s appeals to play out in the courts.

How long it will take Granholm to determine Kilpatrick’s fate is unclear. Despite today’s vote, the council must still submit to the governor’s office a formal sworn statement requesting she remove Kilpatrick from office.

The law giving Granholm the power to remove elected local officials does not give a timetable for action.

The last time a governor conducted removal hearings on a local official was 1982 – for a West Bloomfield Township official accused of public drunkenness. Gov. William Milliken ordered the official to quit drinking or be removed.