Charles Pugh
| Charles Pugh | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Detroit City Council | |
|
In office January 1, 2010 – September 13, 2013 |
|
| President of the Detroit City Council | |
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In office January 1, 2010 – July 7, 2013 |
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| Preceded by | Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Saunteel Jenkins |
Charles Pugh (born August 3, 1971) is a former American television journalist, radio personality, and politician once known for his ten years for being the weekend anchor at WJBK in Detroit. Pugh was elected council president of Detroit City Council in Detroit's city elections in 2009. He also served as the radio personality on CoCo, Foolish and Mr. Chase in the Morning and his own talk show, That's What's Up, which originally aired Sunday evenings on WJLB.
Pugh, who came out as gay in 2004, was the city's first openly gay elected official.
Pugh resigned from the station in March 2009 to pursue his political campaign. He won the most votes of any council candidate on election day, giving him the title of council president, despite a controversy late in the campaign when he acknowledged that he had been struggling financially and his home had been foreclosed.
In 2012, Pugh made headlines in what local newspapers termed a "Twitter war" with an intern at Automotive News. After a brief disagreement on the social network, Pugh tweeted Automotive News requesting that they speak with the intern about his "offensive" posts. Pugh's action was widely derided.
In June 2013, City Councilman Ken Cockrel Jr., who had served as Mayor and President of the Council, made note of Pugh's recent attendance problems, noting that the then-Council President had missed four meetings in a row. At the end of that meeting, Gary Brown, who was the Council's President Pro Tempore and presided over the Council in Pugh's absence, told his colleagues that Pugh had requested a four-week leave of absence as "sick leave." Later that day, Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr denied Pugh's request and told him to return to work or resign.
On June 27, 2013, Detroit emergency financial manager Kevyn Orr formally stripped Pugh of his responsibilities and pay as president of Detroit City Council.
Pugh formally resigned from the Detroit City Council in September 2013.
On June 26, 2013, Pugh made headlines again, when it was alleged that while serving as president of Detroit City Council he had an inappropriate relationship with a male high school student, aged 17 or 18, whom he mentored. Family spokesman Skip Mongo told reporters Pugh “was in a position of authority and he tried to seduce this young man.” News broke of the allegations, and Pugh allegedly left Detroit in the middle of the night, went into hiding requesting a four-week medical leave, which was denied.
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