Ohio Mayor Quits After Saying Ice Fishing Could Lead To Prostitution During Council Meeting

The mayor of a city in Ohio has resigned after his comments about ice fishing stirred up controversy.

Craig Shubert stepped down as the mayor of Hudson on Monday following the unusual comments he made at a city council meeting on Feb. 8. He claimed that allowing ice fishing at a park would bring prostitution to the city.

The comments were ridiculed on social media. Shubert made national headlines last September after he told the members of a school board to resign or face child pornography charges because he believed a book used in a high school class was "child pornography," USA Today reported.

Council members were discussing requests to ice fish on Hudson Springs Lake at the meeting on Feb. 8, cleveland.com reported. Some members pointed out the risk of people falling through the ice, which would consequently add to the pressure on first responders. Shubert then chimed in with his own thoughts on the matter.

"If you open this up to ice fishing, while on the surface it sounds good, then what happens next year?" Shubert said. "Does someone come back and say, 'I want an ice shanty on Hudson Springs Park for X amount of time?' And then if you then allow ice fishing with shanties, then that leads to another problem: prostitution. And now you've got the police chief and the police department involved."

Shubert handed in his resignation Monday to the city's clerk after a video of his comments went viral on social media. He also issued a statement about his decision "to step down as mayor to allow for new leadership, a clean slate and a path forward."

"My comments at Tuesday's workshop were made out of concern for our community; what could become of unintended consequences of new legislation, based on my prior television news reporting experience," he said in the statement. "My attempt to inject a bit of dry humor to make a point about this, in the midst of a cold, snowy February, was grossly misunderstood."

"Some in our community saw this as an opportunity to engage in the politics of personal destruction by means of character assassination, blaming me for the negative international press they helped to promote," Shubert added.

He also thanked the residents of Hudson and said, "Please know your love and support continues to be truly appreciated."