Johnson wasn’t able to attend Tuesday’s press conference, and said he would watch video of the event before commenting.

“I don’t want to take away from the folks who are standing up against this injustice,” he said.

He added that Gonzalez emailed him Tuesday afternoon asking to meet, the first time Gonzalez has responded to Johnson’s requests since the controversy began almost two weeks ago.

“I’m not going to conduct the business of the city of Fitchburg on social media like the president,” Gonzalez told the Cap Times Tuesday.

Gonzalez also said he’s working on a budget amendment with several alders that would provide programming for recognized nonprofits, to be allocated on a competitive basis with “no more earmarks.” This wouldn’t comply with the recall group’s demands.

But Gonzalez said he wasn’t concerned about the recall effort, noting that he was elected into office with 60 percent of the vote, and said he has full support of the city alders.

“I think it’s kind of rather comical that all these individuals that have nothing to do with Fitchburg are getting involved,” he said.