Lee and Sanford's city manager had worked out a resignation deal last week but city commissioners rejected it, saying they didn't want to make any decisions until several reviews of how the Martin case was handled are completed. Only a month earlier, city commissioners gave Lee a vote of no confidence.

The Martin case renewed complaints that the Sanford Police Department ignored the concerns of the city's African American community. The city of 53,000 residents is 57 percent white and 30 percent black.

Both Lee and Myers are white. A Sanford police captain, Darren Scott, who filled in as head of the department during the search for an interim chief, is African American.