Kansas City, Mo. ? Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s former chief of staff said he resigned because of tension in the mayor’s office caused by the mayor’s wife, Gloria Squitiro.

Ed Wolf said he also was concerned that Funkhouser was violating the Missouri Constitution’s ban on nepotism by having his wife in his office as a nearly full-time volunteer.

Wolf’s statements came in a deposition in a lawsuit against Funkhouser, Squitiro and the city brought by former mayoral aide Ruth Bates, who alleged she faced racial and sexual discrimination in the office – much of it from Squitiro.

In the deposition, Wolf said he did not believe Bates’ allegations. But he also said, “I simply felt like the mayor and I were headed in different directions.”

“It was kind of like having your mother-in-law go along on your honeymoon,” he said.

Squitiro’s role in the mayor’s office has been controversial for months, prompting the City Council to pass an ordinance in September that essentially banned her from the office. The mayor, his wife and daughter last week filed a lawsuit against the city seeking to overturn the ordinance.

Wolf said he was “particularly disturbed” by Funkhouser’s opposition to the volunteer ordinance, which included issuing the first mayoral veto in the city’s modern history. The council overturned the veto. The mayor also has begun conducting some city business at his home.

Tension between the mayor and the council over the ordinance would make it difficult to get a majority of the council to support Funkhouser’s initiatives, he said.