Attorney: Boulder City Council lacks authority or reason to remove Sweeney-Miran from panel

Amber Carlson, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.
·4 min read

May 1—Just over two weeks after a special investigator recommended Lisa Sweeney-Miran's resignation or removal from Boulder's Police Oversight Panel, an attorney representing her has alleged that the City Council has no authority or just reason to remove her.

Sweeney-Miran's attorney, Dan Williams, sent a letter to city attorneys on Monday stating that City Council lacks authority to remove POP panelists since the POP is not a city board or commission, but a separate and independent entity. The municipal code governing boards and commissions would not apply, Williams argued, so there would be "no legal basis to apply a procedure solely for the removal of members of boards and commissions to POP panelists."

In addition, Williams wrote, even if the municipal code did apply to POP panelists, boards and commission members can only be removed for "just cause," which includes violations of law, code of conduct violations and derelictions of duty. Sweeney-Miran, he noted, has not been found to have broken the law or violated the city's code of conduct, and the special counsel had not been tasked with making "gratuitous recommendations" beyond the scope of the code of conduct complaints he had been hired to investigate.

Finally, Williams stated, removing Sweeney-Miran would amount to a "quasi-judicial action" that the council is not allowed to take without first satisfying certain requirements, such as providing sufficient notice and allowing the affected person an opportunity for a hearing.

"Before taking an action that would penalize a person for finding that they're not compliance with a law ordinance, Council is required to give them due process, including notice and an opportunity to be heard at a hearing. Council hasn't done that and they said they're trying to rush this through on their consent agenda. Colorado law doesn't allow that, and it's improper," Williams told the Camera.

Furthermore, Williams said, he worried that City Council was allowing politics to "cloud its better judgment" in this case.

"The Police Oversight Panel was created in response to a 2019 policing incident incident involving Zaid Atkinson. ... And the council did the right thing in response in establishing the police oversight panel," Williams said. "But now with the passage of about four years, it seems like the politics of standing firm to make sure that police act in a justice and constitutional manner is giving way to the desire to appear tough on crime. And I think that's unfortunate."

Sweeney-Miran said she felt the letter made clear that there was "no cause, no grounds and no mechanism" for City Council to remove her from the panel.

"A lot of time and attention has gone into this issue," Sweeney-Miran said. "There are many claims every month coming in to the Police Oversight Panel. There's huge amounts of work that should be done. And when I see City Council worrying more about the composition of the Police Oversight Panel than worrying about the actions of the police force itself, it makes me feel that the Police Oversight Panel is not being taken seriously by the city, and not being taken seriously by the City Council."

Third-party investigator Clay Douglas investigated a series of code of conduct complaints from community members, then issued a report on April 14 suggesting Sweeney-Miran should either step down or be removed from the POP and sustaining an allegation that she had shown "real or perceived bias" through some of her actions. More specifically, Sweeney-Miran had been a plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit against Boulder's camping ban, which is enforced by police officers, before her POP appointment, and she had made posts on social media where she had criticized police or policing.

In response to Douglas' report, Williams filed a response on April 18 saying it would be "illegal and improper" for Sweeney-Miran to be removed from the panel, noting that Douglas had accused the POP selection committee and Boulder City Council, not Sweeney-Miran herself, of conduct violations. If Sweeney-Miran were removed without having personally violated the code of conduct, according to Williams, it would be a violation of due process and city code.

Williams' letter came ahead of Thursday's City Council meeting, where it is scheduled to discuss whether to remove Sweeney-Miran or affirm her appointment to the POP.

When contacted Monday evening, Mayor Aaron Brockett said he could not comment on the matter.