Atlantic City stands on the brink in the aftermath of a guilty plea to scamming children enrolled in a youth basketball program by authority figure Mayor Frank Gilliam.

Governor Phil Murphy called on Gilliam to resign.

So did Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-19).

But locally, Atlantic City Councilman Marty Small, Sr., who sources say stands to be the city’s next mayor as a consequence of the city’s politics and control within the Democratic Party organization, stopped short of kicking Gilliam to the curb.

“It’s not for me to say,” Small told Insider, when asked if the mayor should resign. “The process will play out.”

Atlantic City diehard Small was himself a youth basketball star at Stockton.

“It’s troubling,” he said, when asked about the nature of the crime, “but we have to move forward. As iI stated from day one, this was between Mayor Gilliam and the FBI. It played out today with Mayor Gilliam pleading guilty.

“May God bless Mayor Gilliam and his family,” added Small.  “Atlantic City will get through all this. It is a distraction, but we will not be distracted.”

The city was recently at a similar juncture, when then Atlantic City Mayor Bob Levy melted down in office and resigned on October 10th, 2007.

Then, as presumably now when illiam resigns, the local Democratic Committee picked the names of three candidates, which it submitted to the local governing body.

The council will have the responsibility of picking one of those three names.