Okay, I'll give my honest and mostly neutral opinion on this. I'll be listen a few things I consider inappropriate or praisable from the knowledge of having been an admin myself. (And not an particulary bad one, considering I hosted a no-name mange RP which existed over a year and simply died from lack of members.)
_______________________________________
The act itself: Rechecking all the applications and basicly resetting the RP is not a bad Idea. By all means, I think it's actually a good one - it was a bit too chaotic at times and I felt like the admins/mods were less organized than they should.
notification: The mayor fault I see in your actions. You just hurled it at everyone without giving 1-2 days of actually learning of your actions and possibly sound opinions or possible arising problems. Also, if you announced it, there would be less of a "WE'LL BLUDGEON IT INTO YOU" feelings going along with it.
removal of mods: I think it's a good Idea. I think you just randomly decided who could do mod work, to have someone take care of stuff instead of you. I think the mods were not entirely up to the task, not that they were particulary bad or inappropriate, but it realy seemed like they were lacking something at times.
reseting ranks: I don't care. While I'm considered an exception to the rule, I don't mind being set back to D- or C-rank although I can stay at B. Mostly because I believe these ranks aren't an ironclad rule on who has the stronger character.
_____
thats it for now, more still coming I bet.
