What the small town of Troy lacks in population, it is gaining in political unrest. While embattled Mayor Donald Banning faces a potential recall election, former City Attorney Charles Evans is now considering looking for compensation after he was fired from his part-time position last month.
Evans was terminated by the city council during a Feb. 15 meeting when the four councilors split the vote, two in favor of and two against. Banning cast the deciding vote. But Evans said Banning had no legitimate reason to fire him and thus broke his contract, a claim backed by Councilor Fran McCully.
“Donald Banning wants a city attorney that will only say ‘yes, you are right,’ and if you say ‘no’ there are repercussions,” said McCully, the councilor behind the mayoral recall petition submitted last month.
But Banning said Evans “did all sorts of things that are against the law.” When asked to explain, Banning would only give one example, alleging that Evans held a special budget meeting in 2011 and restarted it moments after it had adjourned without proper public notice. Beyond that, Banning said “there are lots of things and once it’s out of the courts you’ll get that information.”
After being fired, Evans immediately filed two writs of prohibition in district court in hopes of regaining his job, but both attempts were denied. Meanwhile, Banning said he planned to appoint Jim Reintsma as the new city attorney. But for now, the town is without legal counsel, which Banning said isn’t the first time. Banning said he tried to have Reintsma hired two weeks ago during a special meeting, but two council members could not attend.
“One said she had a Bible study and the other said he had personal issues, but they’re just playing games,” Banning said.
McCully confirmed that she skipped the meeting because of her weekly Bible study and also because she didn’t want to “step further into the legal mess.” She said it’s likely Reintsma will be approved during the March city council meeting, but regardless of what happens, he won’t get her vote.
McCully said she has multiple concerns about Reintsma, but the largest is the fact that he is representing Banning against the recall petition. She also pointed out that Reintsma is currently serving as Libby’s city attorney.
Reintsma said he didn’t believe there is a conflict of interest. He said he’s representing Banning in his position as mayor and not as a private citizen, adding that when it’s all over, the legal fees will be billed to the town of Troy.
Meanwhile, Evans is mulling legal action, saying he was improperly fired and never given proper notice, just a one-sentence letter on Jan. 9 from Banning stating that his services were no longer needed – a letter McCully said should never have been sent because the council was never consulted.
As for the incident last year, in which Banning said Evans restarted a closed meeting without public notification, Evans said the meeting was not even legal in the first place. Because it involved budget matters, Evans said there had to be a public notice published in the local papers, but a notice was only posted to a bulletin board at town hall 48 hours prior. Evans said while the meeting had technically been adjourned by the council president (Banning wasn’t in attendance because he was home sick), no one had left the room yet.
“It’s a lame reason to terminate me,” Evans said. “But he wants to terminate me so he’s using any ammunition he’s got.”
Evans said he believes the mayor holds a grudge against him for simply doing his job, like pointing out on more than one occasion that Banning was overstepping his bounds. He thinks the judge made a mistake in denying his two writs of prohibition, which could have quickly overturned the council’s decision. He now thinks it’s unlikely he will get his job back and is considering asking for compensation or suing for unlawful termination.
“I’ve been weighing what to do,” he said. “On one hand I don’t want to be a financial burden on the city, but on the other hand, what happened wasn’t legally right and I feel I should be compensated.”
While Evans considers his next move, a petition to recall Banning remains in court. Soon after McCully filed the petition, Banning and his attorney filed a restraining order and injunction against it. Currently a hearing is set for March 14 to decide if the recall petition is legitimate or not. But Reintsma said he didn’t believe it would even get that far. Last week he filed for a summary judgment motion, which means a judge could rule against the recall petition before a hearing even takes place for being “deficient.”