The embattled mayor of Cohoes, Shawn Morse, says he will not resign — as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and many Albany County Democrats have called on him to do. Morse, who is facing allegations of domestic abuse published in the Times Union newspaper, said at City Hall Monday afternoon that he will not step aside.
“I am not resigning from my position,” Morse said during Monday’s press conference. “I was elected by the citizens of the city of Cohoes. They will tell me whether I should continue to be employed as mayor of this city. Nobody else has a right to tell me what my livelihood would be and why I should continue being the mayor of this city.”
The first-term Democrat has denied the allegations, made by multiple women. At the press conference, Morse said he is a broken man.
"If I'm going to save my family, my kid's and even my wife's life, I guess I have no other choice but to stand here in public, in the most humiliating way, a broken man with a broken family. And if I wasn't the mayor of a city working everyday to give other people a better life, nobody would care, nobody would say a word."
Morse said his teenage daughter had crashed his car into a tree and that at one point she had run away for three days. Morse said she was found in the company of people with drugs and guns. Morse said his wife has been addicted to cocaine and was recently jailed. The mayor says he believes he will be vindicated and is capable of running the city.
"I think most people actually feel sorry for my family," said Morse.
There is a special common council meeting set for 7 p.m. Monday.
