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IRON MOUNTAIN -- After a hotly contested election, two Iron Mountain city council members have submitted their resignations.  Mayor Jeff VanLaanen and Councilman Dan Burke resigned yesterday, effective immediately.

VanLaanen still had two years remaining on his term.  Burke lost his council seat at Tuesday's election, but was supposed to serve until January.

"I'm just fed up with the abuse,” said former councilman Dan Burke.  “You know I've got a family to think about and that's why I did this.  I did this for my family.  I have nothing to gain from this."

The moves took some on the city council by surprise.

"I was surprised,” said city councilman Dale Alessandrini.  “I thought that Mr. Burke would at least finish out his three meetings and VanLaanen would finish out his two years.  So it was a shock.”

Alessandrini said the city is now looking to move forward.  TV6 made several attempts to contact VanLaanen which were not returned.  Burke said just because his time in council is over doesn't mean he won't be seen at future meetings.

"Next step, I'm going to take a couple of months off,” Burke said.  “Then I'm going to start coming to council meetings and I'm going to be at that podium and I'm going to start asking questions they have to answer."

The next step for the city is to advertise the openings.  The city council will have a special meeting tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. to accept the resignations and decide where to go from there.