Carthage Council sets date for impeachment hearing against mayor
CARTHAGE, Mo. — The Carthage City Council votes to proceed with the impeachment hearing against Mayor, Dan Rife.
During another heated meeting Tuesday night (7/23), council members voted 6-to-3 to follow the advice of attorney, Paul Martin — special counsel to the city — and move forward with setting a date for an impeachment hearing.
This, despite the ongoing lawsuit by Mayor Rife to determine if his veto against the charges laid out in the impeachment resolution, is in fact, lawful.
The lawsuit by the mayor was the main reason three of the council members voted not to move forward with setting a date for an impeachment hearing.
Regardless, that hearing is now scheduled to take place August 14, at 3:00 p.m. at the Carthage Water and Electric community room.
Another big discussion centered around the impeachment proceedings is the cost.
A majority of council also approved another $15,000 to pay Martin, who has already billed the city just over $30,000 for his legal services — $5,000 more than what council had budgeted.
“You know, this impeachment is really about whether the city has a mayor that is able to perform his job unilaterally, or if he has to get council approval to do certain things, and I believe the impeachment charges and the performance of the mayor over this past year has shown that the mayor believes he can operate without council approval,” said Carthage Councilmember, Alan Snow.
“It’s a complete waste of money. I mean, these are taxpayer dollars, and they could be spent on services or staff for the city. Instead, we are dealing with this vendetta basically, so yeah, I think the money should be used in other ways,” said Mayor Rife.
At one point during the discussion, Councilmembers Lori Leece, Chris Taylor, and Dustin Edge all voiced concerns over the growing cost of the impeachment proceedings.
Councilmembers Tiffany Cossey and Jana Schramm both laid the blame for that expense at the feet of Mayor Rife, saying if he had not chosen to fight the impeachment — or would resign now — the expenses wouldn’t exist or continue to grow.
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