Mayor of NC city refused to resign after DWI charge. How city stripped his powers

Creedmoor Mayor Antwane Downey was elected in November, and now, half a year later, he no longer will have keys to city hall.

Elected officials in Creedmoor — a city of nearly 5,000 in Granville County — took away many of their mayor’s powers Tuesday after he was charged with his fifth DWI.

The Creedmoor Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to restrict Downey’s powers after previously calling for his resignation in a vote in March. The board has also voted to initiate a legal process to attempt to remove Downey from office, but that could take months, The Ledger News reported.

In the interim, Downey can still attend official meetings and vote as a tiebreaker. Those powers are granted to him by state law, and the commissioners can’t take them away.

The News & Observer tried to reach Downey on Tuesday via social media and a phone number listed with the Granville County Board of Elections, but he did not respond. The board restricted him from communicating using town-issued phones or email addresses.

Why did commissioners restrict Downey’s powers?

Downey was previously convicted of driving while impaired four times between 2004 and 2019, before he took office, according to court records.

In February, he was charged with a DWI for the fifth time.

He apologized to residents on Tuesday, saying he has completed a 30-day treatment program as well as outpatient care, according to a recording of the meeting.

He was excused from meetings in March and earlier in April, according to The Ledger News.

On Tuesday, Downey said he wants to continue serving as mayor.

“My commitment to serving this community has not changed,” he said in Tuesday’s meeting.

But commissioners continued to urge him to resign.

“You have a track record that I didn’t make — you made,” said Commissioner Ed Gleason. Gleason said he’s a recovering alcoholic now sober for 35 years.

Commissioner Georgana Kicinski said people have asked at county and state meetings what the board plans to do about the mayor.

“I went to Chapel Hill to a doctor’s appointment [where] doctors and nurses were asking me, and I can’t answer,” she said. “You put us all in a very bad light.”

What powers does the mayor now have?

The board couldn’t immediately remove Downey from office or take away his ability to break ties in official meetings, an attorney advised the commissioners in March, according to The Ledger News.

The commissioners voted Tuesday to prohibit Downey from:

• Representing the city at public functions
• Accessing City Hall unless attending public meetings
• Accessing the mayor’s office
• Accessing and using a city-issued iPad and other equipment
• Having or giving out city business cards
• Sending messages from city-owned email addresses, phones or other communication methods

In March, the board was told that there is a common law process that could allow them to remove the mayor from office called “amotion,” according to The Ledger News.

Paying for outside counsel to conduct an independent investigation into the situation as part of that process could cost $41,000, the board was advised, according to The Ledger News.

Creedmoor is about 30 miles north of Raleigh.

This story was originally published April 22, 2026 at 6:30 PM.