Mobile’s suspended police chief called on the Mobile City Council Tuesday to approve a resolution that would allow for a third-party investigation into his claims about alleged improprieties within Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s administration.

The investigation, Police Chief Paul Prine told the media, could dig down into allegations made by the mayor’s staff about him, including claims that he packed his bags and left his job as chief earlier this month.

The council held off for at least one week on a vote to fire the chief, at the recommendation of Stimpson. It also voted to hold off on whether to pursue a third-party to investigate a myriad of claims that Prine made questionable contracting and improper administration of intelligence-led policing.

The council meeting took place amid the cloud of the police chief’s status hanging over it, and with multiple residents speaking out to defend Prine. Neither Stimpson nor Chief of Staff James Barber were in attendance.

“I’ve been careful not to go tit-for-tat with the administration because so much information gets lost to the public,” Prine said. “This argument that I went AWOL. It’s a theme that has been pushed over the last couple of weeks. An investigation will give me an opportunity to express to the council where some of this is coming from.”

Prine has been on paid administrative leave since April 9, when he began a series of TV media interviews blasting the Stimpson administration. Stimpson, on Friday, called for the council to vote to terminate the chief from his job — an unusual request that has not occurred in Mobile in recent memory.

“Whether it’s done today or three months from today, I’m a short termer,” Prine said. “But the idea that somehow or another everyone is waiting for me to retire and this all goes away. It doesn’t go away.”

Prine said he has had discussions about a revised separation agreement with the city, something which has occurred only in recent days. But he said he has not gotten an official offer.

Prine, 53, is a Prichard native and has been Mobile’s chief since 2021. He was seeking $600,000, while the mayor said he was attempting to assemble a more competitive separation agreement that was more in line with his existing salary. Prine currently earns $146,208 as police chief.

The situation with Prine also comes ahead of the release of a report from former U.S. Attorney Kenyen Brown on the policies and procedures on the use of force within the police department.

Council members, who met with Brown earlier in the day during a closed-door executive session, said that report has nothing to do with Prine. The report is expected to be released publicly tonight.

But the report is sparking much of the fallout with the chief. In Stimpson’s statement from earlier this month, he said preliminary findings of Brown’s review uncovered disturbing instances of Prine’s authoritarian style, irreconcilable differences between Prine and other public safety officials, and a series of “frivolous” complaints, which Stimpson said were “demonstrably false.”

“I was shocked and disappointed to hear that at one open roll call in the first precinct, several officers who were present at the time confirmed that Prine said something to the effect of ‘Don’t pay attention to what I say in the media, f— the public,’” Stimpson said in a statement from two weeks ago.

Stimpson said the information uncovered led him to make a change.

Council members, earlier in the day during a pre-conference meeting, said he was hopeful that the administration and Prine could work out their differences without the council getting involved with a decision on whether to fire the chief.

They continued with those comments after some members of the public called on the council to investigate the claims Prine made about suspected improprieties within the administration.

“The administration needs to be held accountable. Every department in the city,” Councilman Cory Penn said. “I’m sad to see what is taking place in our city.”

Some council members and City Attorney Ricardo Woods thanked the police officers for the job they are doing at a time the agency’s leadership is in upheaval.

“It’s a tough time for them and they do a difficult job,” Woods said.