In virtual court Friday. Clockwise from left: Assistant Corp Counsel Blake Sullivan, Judge Michael Kamp, plaintiff attorney Jerald Barber.
Sharpen your pencils and get ready for some close — and contested — readings of the city charter and code of ordinances, in an ongoing legal case that may influence who helms the police department.
That call to local constitutional arms, so to speak, was issued Friday afternoon during a brief procedural hearing in the ongoing state court case of Bosie Kimber v. Renee Dominguez. The virtual hearing was video-streamed live on YouTube.
The case involves the mayor’s interpretation of the city charter in his choice to keep Dominguez in an interim/acting role as chief after the Board of Alders rejected her nomination.
“It’s a fairly complicated matter,” Assistant Corporation Counsel Blake Sullivan, who is representing the city Interim Police Chief Dominguez in the case, told state Superior Court Judge Michael Kamp during the hearing.
“It’s going to involve interpretations of the charter and city ordinances. We’re anticipating there will be some briefings required.”
OK. Maybe not the most dramatic of legal-gauntlet throwing.
But the case itself promises to dive deeply into contested and ambiguous sections of city law.
The only outcome of Friday’s hearing was that Kamp ordered Sullivan and plaintiff’s attorney Jerald Barber to file briefs and a stipulation of facts before over the next couple of weeks in the run-up to the next hearing in the case, which is scheduled for April 13.
The lawsuit that sparked the court case was filed by Kimber, a Newhallville minister and activist, and Barber in early January.
The lawsuit alleges that the Elicker Administration and Dominguez have violated the city charter by keeping Dominguez in place as acting chief indefinitely, even after the Board of Alders rejected her nomination last November. (The city has subsequently hired a California-based police chief search firm to help find a new permanent replacement for Dominguez. Dominguez, in turn, has said she will stay at the helm of the department until her replacement is found.)
Kimber and Barber cite one section of the charter and one section of the city Code of Ordinances in particular to make their case for why the city has allegedly violated its own laws.
The city has not yet filed an legal “answer” to the lawsuit. Kamp ordered Sullivan to do that by next week.
The relevant section of the charter is Article IV. Section 1(A)(3). That states: “Other than to membership on a Board or Commission, the Mayor may designate an individual to hold a position in an acting capacity pending the selection of a nominee, but no person may hold such a position for more than six (6) months without being submitted for confirmation by the board.”
The lawsuit also quotes Section 2 – 304 of the city Code of Ordinances, which states:“No person may serve in a temporary employment position with the city beyond one hundred eighty (180) days.”
Kimber and Barber have argued in that Dominguez has no legal right to continue in the role as acting chief because she has been in charge of the department in an acting capacity for more than six months.
In previous interviews and public statements on this matter, Elicker has argued that he is legally clear to keep Dominguez in the role as acting chief even after that six-month time period has run out because all the charter requires him to do is submit her name for confirmation by the Board of Alders within that period.
Stay tuned…