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Michael Sullivan has officially stepped down from City Council.

According to a letter submitted to the city last week, Sullivan made his resignation from the council official last Friday. Sullivan cited a county advisory committee's 2006 decision concerning his dual employment as both a city councilor and the Middlesex County Clerk of Courts as his primary reason for stepping down.

"There are still come concerns relative to [their] opinion that my holding both positions simultaneously is 'problematic,'" Sullivan said in a statement last week. "To fully address the concerns of the Advisory Committee, I must resign as a Cambridge City Councilor effective immediately."

Marsha Weinerman, executive director of the city’s Election Commission confirmed a special recount of ballots from the 2005 City Council election would determine Sullivan’s successor on the council.

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“I’m in the process right now of reviewing exactly how those ballots will be counted,” Weinerman said. The commission would have to hold a meeting to fill the vacany, she added.

Sullivan’s departure will likely not significantly impact the candidate pool for the upcoming City Council election in November, Weinerman said. His successor would only sit on the council for the duration of the current term, which ends after the election.

“Whoever succeeds [Sullivan] would have to have submitted papers and been certified for the November election,” Weinerman said, adding that the interim appointment is not an automatic place on the ballot.

Last month, the eight-term city councilor announced he wouldn't be seeking reelection this November.

During his statement to the City Council July 30, Sullivan defended his right to hold both jobs as councilor and clerk of courts, despite a ruling by a judicial ethics committee that called the move "problematic."

Last November, Sullivan was elected clerk of courts in Middlesex County. In January, a Supreme Judicial Court's Advisory Committee on Ethical Opinions for Clerks of the Courts ruled that it was legal, but "problematic" for Sullivan to simultaneously hold down his job as city councilor and clerk. Sullivan's term as clerk of courts ends in 2012.

In May, Sullivan defended his decision to keep both jobs despite the state's opinion, saying he had become skilled at separating the two positions.

Sullivan is part of a family political dynasty in Cambridge. A member of Sullivan's family has served on the City Council since 1936 and it looks like the family is trying to continue its political reign after Sullivan's resignation. Sullivan's cousin, Edward J. Sullivan, and cousin of Michael Sullivan with the same name, took out nomination papers for City Council. Edward J. Sullivan is a 45-year-old former Middlesex County commissioner.

"I have enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to have served afforded me by the people of Cambridge," Sullivan stated.

-mdunning@cnc.com