David Dilworth says he’s sorry.

The Pacific Grove gadfly sent a “mea culpa” press release Aug. 9, apologizing for the way he worded an earlier e-mail to P.G. Mayor Dan Cort. “I made a mistake using words that reasonable people find politically threatening and inappropriate,” Dilworth wrote.

Unless the mayor steps down, Dilworth wrote on Aug. 3, he would begin a recall campaign, also targeting Councilmembers Deborah Lindsay, Bill Kampe and Vicki Stilwell. Hours later, Cort announced his intent to resign Aug. 31.

Cort says his decision to resign is still firm: “I’m not changing my mind.”

While Dilworth’s recall threat isn’t the only reason he’s throwing in the towel, he says, it’s a “symptom” of a persistent lack of civility at P.G. City Council meetings. “I want this to be about respect and dialogue in government,” Cort says. “Meeting after meeting, a small group of people comes and disrupts and threatens our council. It really makes it difficult to get our work done. This insulting, demeaning behavior is something that’s gotta end.”

Anger with Dilworth was palpable at the Aug. 5 City Council meeting, where more than a dozen speakers rallied to Cort’s defense.

Following the outpouring of support for the mayor – and vitriol against the perennial dissenter – Dilworth attempted to retract an Aug. 7 opinion piece criticizing Cort’s environmental record.

The op-ed, titled “Mayor Cort Quietly Harming Real Sustainability,” addressed the reasons Dilworth targeted Cort, arguably the county’s most environmentally savvy mayor.

“With Cort as Mayor, the City has impaled our real, physical environment, like the deer impaled on a sharp fence this spring, which the Mayor was warned about years earlier,” Dilworth wrote. “Mayor Cort, who in real life is a developer from Stockton, can say the word ‘sustainable’ five times in one sentence but that didn’t mute the dying deer’s screams as it was impaled on a developer’s new sharp fence this spring only a block from Mayor Cort’s house.”

Dilworth hasn’t said the recall is off; when called for comment, he hung up on the Weekly.