Norwich Mayor Shawn Sastri withdrew his resignation from office Tuesday after is became apparent he would not be appointed as the city's new youth director, with the common council delaying a final decision for the job. (Photo by Sarah Giglio)

NORWICH – At the Norwich Common Council meeting Tuesday, Mayor Shawn Sastri offered his resignation hoping that he would be appointed as the city's new youth bureau director.

However, following an executive session lasting 35 minutes, the council returned and voted to postpone the appointment instead, which prompted the mayor to retract his offer of resignation.

In order to accept the new position with the city Sastri will have to step down from elected office, officials explained.

The council went into an an executive session without Sastri and then emerged to publicly vote on delaying the decision in the last three minutes of the Tuesday's meeting.

Sastri said he was surprised by the decision but also prepared for the council to decide either way. He remains an applicant for the job of youth bureau director.

“There are always those possibilities, obviously, nothing is a 100 percent,” Sastri said Wednesday morning.

Asked why the board had decided to delay the issue, Sastri said he did not ask and did not know.

The mayor guessed the board was worried about public perception.

“I think they wanted to be as transparent as possible and are taking an extra precaution to make sure the public is informed. I don't think they want it viewed as a scandal,” said Sastri. “We did handle it properly.”