While scolding the audience at the Springfield City Council meeting, Mayor Tom Carlson misspoke, telling them if they weren't quiet they would be executed.
Afer the remark, Carlson joked that's maybe what he was thinking but then clarified that he meant they would be escorted out of the council chambers.
Several members of the audience had just applauded and cheered a man who asked council to vote againtst the C-U rate natural gas rate hike proposal.
After Carlson's remark they jeered some more.
Here's what he said:
"If you are going to start clapping and hollering on speakers you are going to be executed- escorted...(audience laughter)... yeah, that's what I'm thinking. But you will be escorted out of here. This is not somewhere to come for a ballgame and cheer the side you're in favor of. If you're not willing to render respect to the speakers on both sides of the issue frankly you don't have a place here".

Later in the meeting when another speaker said he feared he would be executed, Carlson stopped the meeting momentarily.
He did not explain his own slip of the tongue, but said it was not acceptable to joke about guns or executions at city hall.
He referenced the city hall shooting in Kirkwood just two months ago.
The mayor was among five people shot by a lone gunman upset with the city.
Kirkwood plans to elect a new mayor tomorrow.