CASSELBERRY, Fla. — A Casselberry city commissioner says he won’t resign after being called out over comments made about violence at the U.S. Capitol, but he did apologize after more than a thousand people in in the city signed a petition to have him removed.

A lot of people came to Casselberry’s City Commission meeting Monday night to ask for Vice Mayor Mark Busch’s resignation.

One of those people was Casselberry resident Emily Orey, who started the petition asking for Busch to resign after he comments he made on video a day before the attack on the Capital seemed to support possible violence there.

While Busch has apologized for his remarks, he said he will not resign.

Orey and others at the meeting Monday night said in one-on-one conversations he seemed sincerely sorry for his remarks, but they feel like his public apologies have been lacking.

“He’s disregarded every opportunity to regain our trust,” Orey said.

The petition she started got over 1,600 signatures.

But there were also a lot of people who came to Monday’s meeting in support of Busch.

“And if we remove an elected official for using that free will then we risk losing all boundaries on how citizens can speak in our society,” said one person who got up to speak in support of him at the meeting.

Busch's own wife, mother and father got up to speak in support of their son keeping his position on the Commission.

Ultimately the Commission decided that it wasn’t up to them to determine whether what he had said was wrong.

And after a discussion to decide whether they should launch an investigation into his comments, the members decided not to.

Mayor David Hensen said he felt like there was nothing more to investigate and that hiring a third-party investigator would cost taxpayers thousands.

“Do I like what he had to say? Not particularly. But does he have a right to say it? Obviously he’s allowed to say what he wants to say,” Hensen said.

But they did determine that Busch violated part of their code of conduct when he was identified as a city commissioner but failed to specify in the video that he was not speaking in is official capacity.

For that he was asked to step down from all community and city boards he served on, which he willingly agreed to.

Orey says she feels like that’s progress.

“I am happy that some commissioners did come out and condemn his words and his actions as a commissioner,” she said.

Busch said he’s happy the community could have a dialog about his comments.

He has filed to run for congress and says his actions and the controversy they’ve created, have not changed that.

“Yeah I’m still registered, and yeah still planning on running and looking forward to focus on freedom of speech,” Busch said.