Attorney Blake Fugate on the left is pictured with his client, Bronson Councilman Berlon Weeks. Fugate asked for Weeks’ reinstatement Monday. The Bronson Council refused.
By Terry Witt -Spotlight Senior Reporter
An attorney representing Bronson Town Councilman Berlon Weeks said Monday he was illegally removed from his seat by the board and should be reinstated by the council or face the possibility of a court order to return him to office.
Attorney Blake Fugate said a recording of the special council meeting where the board effectively removed Weeks from office showed his client made several statements about resigning, or leaving office after he finished this term, but said nothing that met the state’s legal standard for a valid resignation.
Fugate said state law requires a resignation to be so clear that it can’t be interpreted any other way and that there can be absolutely no doubt about the intentions of the public official to leave office.
“I can tell you none of the language Mr. Weeks used that night regarding resignation met any of those standards,” Fugate said.
Despite Fugate’s demands for reinstatement and threat of legal action against the town, the council refused to make a motion to return Weeks to office and moved on to other business as though it was a routine agenda item.
The council had refused Fugate’s request for a special meeting to discuss Weeks but instead left space on the agenda to discuss the council member under the heading of “public participation.”
Before leaving the council chambers, Fugate asked the council one last time if they would make a motion to reinstate Weeks without a court fight. The four council members refused to make a motion.
“After tonight if he’s not placed on there, the way to get him on there is to get an order from a judge enjoining the council –and enjoining doesn’t mean keeping you from doing something – It also can mean making you do something,” Fugate said. “We’re going to enjoin the Town of Bronson to recognize that he’s a councilman, a current councilman. We’re going to ask for that in several different ways; there will be a state call of action, there’s also going to be a federal call of action.”
Board attorney Steven Warm said it was his opinion that the board’s vote to accept Week’s alleged resignation was legal even though Warm wasn’t absolutely sure Weeks had resigned.
“I wasn’t entirely sure that he had resigned or that I could come to the conclusion on my own – for the betterment of the council – whether he had resigned or not; which is why I left it up to the council who had observed and heard everything that happened and were deeply invested in the situation,” Warm said. “Whether he had or he had not unambiguously, unmistakably…resigned; I thought you would be the best judge of this and you made a decision that the courts and juries every day decide whether something is or is not ambiguous.”
One of the possible reasons Warm couldn’t make a judgment is that he wasn’t physically present for the meeting where Weeks made the alleged statements about resigning. Warm was communicating via a primitive speakerphone system from his home at the council meeting. Warm couldn’t see what happened in that meeting and the speakerphone’s sound was spotty. He was working from home to prevent exposure to COVID-19 and has been using this arrangement for at least six months or more.
Warm has often been criticized for giving legal advice that no one can hear except perhaps Mayor Beatrice Roberts and Councilman Jason Hunt who sit next to the speakerphone. At Monday’s meeting, Warm was linked to the council meeting by a Zoom virtual connection on a laptop. He could actually see some of the council members and could hear them much of the time. He commended the council for looking much like they did when he last saw them a long time ago. Interim Clerk Melisa Thompson at one point cut off his sound because the laptop was emitting distracting background noise. She later turned it back on.
Warm tends to avoid telling the council what they can’t do or shouldn’t do. He discusses the pros and cons of issues and lets the council make a decision as a board. He used that same system on the night the council voted to accept Weeks resignation, which effectively removed Weeks from office. Warm indicated he personally wasn’t certain whether Weeks resigned. He felt it could go either way. But he left it to the four remaining politicians on the board to make a decision. Weeks was excluded from voting on grounds he had a conflict.
Warm didn’t factor in the animosity on the board toward Weeks when the attorney left the council to decide his fate. Two board members have accused him of racism and badgering female employees, and of misusing town-owned asphalt millings to pave his family’s driveway, allegations Weeks has denied. Bitter arguments have broken out in board meetings about these topics with Weeks repeatedly being the target of the verbal attacks. Warm also wasn’t present on the night of the alleged resignation when board member Aaron Edmondson berated Weeks with allegations that he had prompted multiple female employees to resign in Town Hall. The negativity continued until Weeks became angry and made statements about possibly resigning or leaving office after he finished this term. Warm didn’t witness any of it. He wasn’t present at the meeting except by an aging speakerphone.
Did Weeks actually resign or did he make statements in anger that didn’t amount to a resignation? It appears a judge will decide the issue rather than a group of small-town politicians who some say weren’t capable of fairly judging the councilman on the night they claim he resigned from office.
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Town of Bronson Regular Meeting November 9, 2020; Posted November 10, 2020
