On April 26, the St. Louis County Circuit Court heard Robert Lee’s argument that he was wrongfully removed from his board position at the Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District.
Anthony Gray and Rufus Tate, attorneys defending the district and board member Rhea Willis, presented a trial brief to Lee’s attorney, Neil Bruntrager, before the hearing. Bruntrager told the judge that he was not prepared to respond to the brief, and the judge set another hearing date, June 7 at 9 a.m., to allow Bruntrager and his team to prepare.
The questions on the table are:
Did Robert Lee accept a position with St. Louis County when he was a board member?
If he did, was he still allowed to be a board member under state law?
And did the former board members Joe Washington and Robert Edwards have the right to pass a resolution declaring that Lee could no longer serve on the board?
After an hour of closed-session deliberation over the case technicalities, Judge Steven Goldman decided that the attorneys should first address Lee’s employment status. Once Lee’s employment status is established, the court will decide whether former district board members Washington and Edwards should have informed the court through an official motion regarding Lee’s employment.
According to the district’s trial brief, on June 30, the district confirmed Lee’s employment with Kirk McCarly, the St. Louis County’s director of personnel, in the form of a letter. On July 2, Washington and Edwards signed a resolution to acknowledge the law that prohibits Lee from being on the board and that he could no longer make board decisions or receive compensation from the district.
According to state law, when a fire district board member accepts a job with any government, that person loses his/her position on the board.
“When any fire protection district director accepts any office or employment under this state or any political subdivision thereof, his office shall thereby be vacated and he shall thereafter perform no duty and receive no salary or expenses as fire protection district director,” according to Missouri Revised Statutes Chapter 321, Section 15.
Bruntrager spent most of the hour of open session arguing that former board members did not follow the correct procedures to inform Lee of the law or the resolution they drafted.
“We think the board acted beyond its jurisdiction,” Bruntrager said.
Anthony Gray and Rufus Tate, attorneys defending the district and board member Rhea Willis, argued that the state law is “self-executing.” It does not require the board to go to the courts. Gray said the statute is specific to fire districts, and it speaks directly to this type of circumstance.
At one point, Robert Adler, a St. Louis County municipal court judge and an attorney on Lee’s legal team, said, “That woman should not have been on the board,” referring to Rhea Willis.
Willis was appointed to Lee’s board position on July 6, 2009. The statement caught Willis’ attention.
“Judge Adler’s reference to me in court as ‘that woman’ was disrespectful and insensitive,” Willis said.
Willis compared Adler’s comment to U.S. Senator John McCain’s words when he referred to then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama as “that one” during a presidential debate.
“Clearly, Senator McCain was speaking in thinly veiled, coded terms,” Willis said. “As a voter in St. Louis County, I hope that Judge Adler was not trying to couch his contempt for me in such veiled coded language. The people will decide that issue on the merits.”
In a phone interview on April 27, Adler told the St. Louis American that he had just joined the case and Lee’s legal team at 11 a.m. that morning.
“I didn’t know her name,” Adler said. “It wasn’t mean in any other manner other than to say the woman replacing Mr. Lee. And that the actions that the board took that relied on her vote were invalid.”
Bruntrager did not return The St. Louis American’s calls regarding the hearing. Alder said Bruntrager was out of town.
Alder also said he questions whether Lee is a St. Louis County employee. The position Lee holds is part of a federally-funded program, he said.
“It’s a legal question whether the law applies,” Alder said, referring to the 321.015 statute.
And even if he were a County employee, Alder said the way to challenge his board position is to file a law suit, not pass a resolution.
“That’s our position – you can’t do it that way,” he said.
Adrian Ware, a district resident of 32 years who regularly attends district board meetings, said that he doesn’t understand why Lee is fighting to get back on the board, considering the law.
“Bob Lee knows the position he holds,” Ware said. “What are they trying to do, change the law?”
Given board politics, many predict Lee’s return to the board would create a new board majority that would signal the end of the tenure of Fire Chief Angelia Elgin, the first female African-American fire chief in Missouri. Board member Bridget Quinlisk-Dailey voted against appointing Elgin as fire chief. Lee previously worked with Bridget’s brother, Brian Quinlisk, on the board.
‘Conflict of interest’
While the attorneys were in closed session, Lee waited in the court room for an hour. Bridget Quinlisk-Dailey continuously approached Lee to speak with him about the case.
Bruntrager subpoenaed the district for its July 2009 board meeting minutes. Linda Love-Tolbert, office administrator, brought the files to the court room, and Dailey intercepted them to give to Robert Lee.
In the court room, she told Lee that the minutes do not show that the July 2 resolution was ever presented at a meeting. She said to Lee that as far as she was concerned, the resolution was not valid. Alder said the resolution was presented to Lee in a closed-session board meeting.
Patrick Green, mayor of Normandy, said Dailey’s interaction with Lee was questionable.
“It seems like a conflict of interest for a board member to interact with the person that is suing the district,” Green said.
Derek Mays, chairman of the district board, was also present at the court hearing. Mays, a patent attorney with Maritz, said that the judge will be looking into whether or not Lee had to “vacate” his position under the Missouri statute 321.015.
“I can hear more facts,” Goldman said to the attorneys. “The big issue I’d anticipate is whether Mr. Lee was a state employee.”
In other Northeast news
Mays said the board is waiting to hear if St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge John Ross will approve the budget submitted to him earlier this month. On Oct. 20, a temporary restraining order put a freeze on assets and all spending unless approved by the judge. Once the budget is approved, Mays said he hopes the judge will release authority back to the district board members.