Mayor Mark Funkhouser and wife Gloria Squitiro went out on the talk show circuit Friday to defend her continuing as a volunteer in the mayor's office over the council's protests.

One revelation: Squitiro said she has told Funkhouser at least 100 times and perhaps as many as 1,000 times that she's willing to walk away from her unpaid gig at City Hall.

"He won't let me do that," she told KCPT's Nick Haines during a taping of Week in Review.

But just as Funkhouser declined park board member Frances Semler's offer to resign at the start of that firestorm, Funkhouser has rejected each of Squitiro's offers. He said he needs his wife involved in his administration.

Squitiro acknowledged she wasn't involved when Funkhouser was city auditor, but said mayor "isn't a normal job like that."

Afterward, Squitiro declined further comment. (She would later tell radio interviews on KMBZ-AM that she had told her husband repeatedly, "I'm done. It's over. Forget it." But she said Funkhouser didn't want others to make the decision for her.)

Funkhouser told Prime Buzz the stress and public attention had prompted his wife's offers to leave City Hall.

"If you've ever had one ugly cartoon by (Star cartoonist) Lee Judge," he said, then that type of pressure would make anyone consider quitting. And he said multiple cartoons had derided his wife.

As for why he hasn't accepted her offer, "I think the same amount of tension on our marriage" would be there. And he said he needs her by his side.

And as for the volunteer ordinance, he said the council members are wrong and it is unconstitutional.