An issue that came to a head last summer between Columbia police Chief Ken Burton and city leaders on whether Burton should resign is officially closed, with Burton now planning to continue in his role until retirement.

In July, Burton�s attorney sent a letter to Mayor Brian Treece, City Manager Mike Matthes and the six other members of the council pitching a buyout if they were dissatisfied with Burton�s service and accusing Treece of violating the city charter by seeking council support to remove Burton. Ultimately, the issue of whether Burton would entertain a monetary offer to resign was resolved quickly, Third Ward Councilman Karl Skala said Thursday.

Skala said he met with Matthes soon after the letter was sent and that it soon was determined that the sum it would take to convince Burton to leave his post would become a political liability.

�You�re talking upwards of between half a million and $1 million,� Skala said. �That didn�t seem reasonable.�

The estimate was based on giving Burton a few years� worth of his current salary, about $152,000 annually, with the thinking that it would pay his way into retirement.

There were other reasons why Burton stayed, Skala said, including a state law that protects police chiefs and ensures they can�t be fired for almost any reason other than breaking the law, as well as the idea of having to conduct a national and exhaustive search for a new police chief.

So the issue became moot, and on Wednesday, at a quarterly meeting of the local media and police command staff, Burton called it a �closed issue.�

�There�s a lot of things going on here that I would like to see finished,� he said, including the construction of a new station on the city�s north side.

Burton, 61, said he plans to continue as police chief until he retires, though he said he is unsure when exactly that will be.

�As long as I have my health, and I enjoy doing what I do, I intend to stay,� he said.

Thad Mulholland, Burton�s attorney, wrote the letter to Treece in July and copied other officials, accusing Treece of violating the city charter by �seeking support of the city council to remove him from his job.� The letter also asked the mayor to consider making Burton an offer if he wanted the chief gone. Within days of the Tribune publishing the letter, a Tribune reporter obtained correspondence among city officials and found no evidence of mayoral overreach.

Treece and Matthes did not respond to messages seeking comment.

The letter was written during a period in which the Columbia Police Officers� Association had accused top brass of not taking officers� complaints seriously, community leaders had accused the department of racially profiling drivers and morale in the rank and file was at a low point.

Now, nearly six months later, Skala said Burton has taken several steps to ease tensions in the city and department, including meeting with community leaders to discuss accusations of racial profiling and agreeing to change patrol officers� schedules to help morale.

�The police chief is on kind of a bit more firmer footing than he was before,� Skala said.

Skala commended Burton for coming to Columbia to do �what he was supposed to do� and reign in a department that had issues with officers �not following the rules� when Burton was hired in 2009. Skala said he doesn�t anticipate the issue of a buyout coming up again.

Per city charter, Mattes makes all decisions on hiring or firing department heads, except for the municipal judge, city clerk and city manager positions, and the council cannot instruct him to make any personnel decisions in those areas. The council does have a say over whether taxpayer money will be used for something like a buyout.

Overall, Skala said, the problem from the summer has been worked out.

�I think it was determined that policy changes was probably the way to go,� he said.