Riverside councilman could be removed from office

If you go:

Fullenkamp’s hearing will be part of a regular Riverside council meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at 5200 Springfield St.

Riverside City Council could vote to remove one of its members from office Thursday — a move so uncommon that city leaders are still unclear of how the process would work.

With less than 72 hours before the hearing, Riverside leaders still had not fully disclosed how the proceedings against Councilman Steve Fullenkamp will be organized, though the resolution states the council could declare his seat vacant.

“It seems very, very unusual,” said Vladimir Kogan, an assistant professor of political science at Ohio State University.

Fullenkamp is the recipient of three complaints since June. Chief Frank Robinson alleged Fullenkamp possibly attempted to intervene during a criminal investigation. The others involve Fullenkamp allegedly telling Director of Planning Brock Taylor he should have disregarded the instructions of the city manager in a long-standing zoning dispute.

Taylor and Vice Mayor Mike Smith complained, with Smith alleging Fullenkamp’s statements were an improper interference with city administration under the charter.

Riverside’s charter gives council authority to remove a member for violation of the charter. Additionally, the charter states council “shall declare” vacant the seat of a member who violates the charter’s requirement that council members deal “solely through the manager.” However, Mayor Bill Flaute indicates such interference is not clearly defined.

“That’s what Thursday night will have to determine,” Flaute said.

City Law Director Dalma Grandjean detailed several options of recourse for council, including issuance of discipline, such as a sanction or censure. She also advised that if council invoked removal under the charter, Fullenkamp should be accorded all due process rights, including "written notice of the charges, opportunity to call and cross examine witnesses, present evidence, etc."

Yet, Riverside's charter does not specifically guarantee such due process, and it is unclear whether council will afford it to Fullenkamp. Flaute said he will meet Wednesday with Special Counsel David Williamson, who the city appointed to deal with Fullenkamp's potential removal, to receive "a better sense of what will be happening."

Neither Fullenkamp, who has hired his own counsel, nor Williamson responded Tuesday to a request for comment.

If Fullenkamp is removed, council would be required by charter to fill the vacancy by majority vote within 30 days.

Speaking generally, civics experts interviewed by the Dayton Daily News said a council removing one of its own members is rare.

“I have not personally heard before of a city where members of a legislative body had the ability to remove one of their members,” said former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, a distinguished research associate at the University of Dayton. Taft, also a former Ohio secretary of state, said the normal procedure of removal is through a recall election.

The National Civic League crafted a model city charter in 1915. While the eighth and current edition of the model charter — used as an example of how to organize council-manager governments — provides language similar to Riverside’s for removing council members, officials at the Denver-based organization acknowledged they had not heard of such a mechanism being used.

“I can’t remember an instance of this in recent history,” said Mike McGrath, editor of the National Civic Review.

Ohio State’s Kogan said Fullenkamp, if removed, could likely “make a strong case that this is political action protected by the First Amendment.”

“I think he could certainly sue and say the city and council are misrepresenting the city charter, and I think he’d make a strong case,” Kogan said. “If the courts found the charter is being interpreted correctly, I think he could probably find some legal grounds to challenge that portion of the charter itself.”