The Jacksonville City Council voted to withdraw a bill moving a monument celebrating confederate womanhood out of Springfield Park on Tuesday, and it's unclear whether a future bill will be considered.

The bill's withdrawal thwarted a policy priority of the mayor, but not without real drama that included one stoppage of proceedings to clear the room before a final vote.

The Council's position was known going in.

Three City Council committees (Finance, Transportation, Energy and Utilities, and Neighborhoods, Community Services, Public Health and Safety had previously voted against spending $1.3 million to move the Tribute to the Women of the Confederacy from Springfield Park, a proposal advanced by  Mayor Lenny Curry to remove the divisive structure from public space.

In the end, it was clear the Council did not want to move the monument.

Motions to postpone the bill failed repeatedly, but a Reggie Gaffney motion to withdraw the legislation ultimately prevailed by a 12-6 vote.

That compromise solution was not enthusiastically hailed.

Republican Matt Carlucci said "withdrawal is too easy a way out." But he reluctantly supported it, saying withdrawal is a better fate than killing the bill altogether.

"There's been a lot of talk about history. We're not making good history tonight," Carlucci said. "It's about courage. We're missing that opportunity tonight."

Mayor Curry urged Council to vote "yes or no," but what was clear was the Council did not want that vote.

Democrat Garrett Dennis said Council was taking the "coward route" by withdrawing, saying Curry would be "the winner."

"He made a decision to put out a bill to remove the monuments ... we couldn't get it done," Dennis said. "We are running and ducking our tails as cowards."

The Mayor removed a monument last year from the former Hemming Park, located across the street from Jacksonville's City Hall. He vowed during a Black Lives Matter march that other monuments would come down.

But unlike the one in what is now James Weldon Johnson Park, the mammoth structure in Springfield would require the full $1.3 million to move it, per the Mayor's Office, to preserve the artistic value of the piece. That argument fell flat even with Council members who otherwise want the monument gone.