ROYAL OAK, Mich. - "The person I went to the rally with and myself were 6ft away from everyone around us," said Royal Oak Commissioner, Kim Gibbs. "There was no hand shaking, there was no hugging, there was no fist bumping or elbow pumping."
Operation Gridlock was the name of the Rally in Lansing last week. Gibbs was one of the attendees to protest Governor Whitmer's latest lockdown orders.
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Royal Oak Commissioner Kim Gibbs refuses to step down after attending protest
FOX 2 News
"With all of the extremes, it made it almost impossible to have a livelihood," Gibbs said.
The same day, Mayor of Royal Oak, Mike Fournier started to get emails and calls.
"They were sending me photos of her at the protect violating social distancing orders that our governor had put in place to protect us," Fournier said.
Fournier says he supports anyone's right to protest, but doesn't support Gibbs breaking social distancing orders. He sent an email asking her to step down for it.
"I strongly encouraged her to resign because 1, obviously she violated the law, and 2, she put our residents in Royal Oak at risk.
Gibbs doesn't buy that reasoning. She says it's an attempt to silence her conservative voice, being one of two on the city's Board of Commissioners.
"I will not be resigning," Gibbs said. "To my knowledge, the only person that can remove me is the Governor and I think she has her hands full right now.
The mayor is exploring other actions against Gibbs, He's continuing to fields concerns from constituents.
"The general tone is shock that an elected city official would take unnecessary risk exposing herself to this disease and risk exposing other protesters and then bringing it back to Royal Oak," Fournier said.