KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser said Monday he was looking for a fresh start, and he asked other city leaders to also move forward and focus on the city's priorities.

Funkhouser called a news conference Tuesday morning and said he wanted to make a clean slate with members of the City Council and move forward, but before reporters could finish asking questions, he exited quickly, saying that he was done with the news conference.

The mayor and the council have been at odds about his wife, Gloria Squitiro, volunteering in his office at City Hall.

The City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting her from serving as an unpaid worker in his office. The mayor vetoed the ordinance, then the City Council overrode his veto.

The City Council voted 11-1 to override his veto, with the mayor casting the only vote against the override.

The ordinance allows elected officials to have family members volunteer only infrequently in their offices.

Funkhouser has said he believes there's nothing inappropriate about his wife helping him in his office at City Hall.

Council members have argued that they are "sick" of the distraction of Squitiro's role in her husband's office.

Funkhouser has told council members that he might file a lawsuit.

Based on his comments Tuesday, it remained unclear as to whether or not he had decided to pursue legal action.

The mayor did talk about four key issues that said were all related, crime, transit, economic development and education.

He said crime seemed to be heavily concentrated in the urban areas of Kansas City where there was less development of businesses and jobs and that education was the key to lowering crime.

He said there would be a series of meetings in the coming weeks to work on those four issues.

When he was asked about his chief of staff resigning, he responded by saying that reporters needed to ask him, Ed Wolf, about his decision.

And when reporters questioned him about his rocky history with City Council, he said he had some support from some council members for his initiatives. He also commented about what was on the minds of many Americans.

"Yes, the economy is in a mess, absolutely, no question, but life goes on. We're still going to go to work everyday, and we can choose where our priorities are, where we focus," Funkhouser said.

Funkhouser noted that some of the buildings still standing in the city were built during the Great Depression.