Kansas City, Mo. ? The yearlong tussle between Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser and the City Council over whether the mayor’s wife can work at City Hall may be winding down.

The City Council on Thursday failed to override the mayor’s veto of a revised version of the ordinance that would have limited the hours that his wife, Gloria Squitiro, can volunteer in the mayor’s office.

Funkhouser said he was not prepared to say whether Squitiro would return to City Hall soon.

“I don’t think this is a burning question for most citizens,” he said.

The council passed the original volunteer ordinance last year in part because of a lawsuit against the mayor’s office and criticism that Squitiro had become a distraction in her full-time volunteer role in Funkhouser’s office. Last month, the council agreed to pay $550,000 to settle a discrimination lawsuit against Squitiro that stemmed from her time in his office.

A judge ruled two weeks ago that provisions in the original ordinance barring Squitiro and other family members of elected officials from regularly volunteering in their offices were unconstitutional.

The council then responded to the judge’s ruling by clarifying that volunteers who are relatives of elected officials or city employees could participate in their offices no more than 10 hours per month. The revision also provided a way in which a council majority could “terminate” a problem volunteer.

Funkhouser’s veto eliminated those provisions.

In his veto message Thursday, Funkhouser said while the council’s revisions were still unconstitutional, he wanted to “work together to make this a more positive ordinance for the citizens of Kansas City.”

“I believe our constituents will be grateful if we do that,” he said.

Before the vote Thursday, Councilwoman Sharon Sanders Brooks also urged members to end the controversy.

“The public is sick of the bickering between the mayor and council. This has got to stop,” she said. “Our constituents deserve better governance than this.”

Councilwoman Beth Gottstein also said she wanted to end fighting over Squitiro’s presence in City Hall. But she urged Funkhouser to consider why he can’t seem to operate without his family at City Hall.

Councilman Ed Ford asked his colleagues to postpone a vote and try to work out a compromise on some new volunteer ordinance language. But his effort failed.