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A St. Louis County Circuit Judge has reinstated Ellisville Mayor Adam Paul.

On April 8, Paul was removed from office by the City Council on charges of abuse of power. Yesterday's decision states that the City Council may have violated Paul's due process by changing the charges against Paul without giving him proper notice.

Paul's attorney Chet Pleban tells KTRS's McGraw Milhaven that Adam Paul once again has "full duties and full responsibilities" as the new mayor. Mayor Paul added, "It's going to be nice coming back to a level-headed counsel that's fair and unbiased." 

The judge determined that the council may have also committed other improprieties that include: the previously appointed City Attorney disqualifying himself from the removal hearing, but among other things, writing the charges against Paul.

The judge concludes his ruling by saying that Paul's motion to stay the removal is granted and he is reinstated as Mayor. 

   It was another raucous night in Ellisville Wednesday as supporters of the impeached mayor, Adam Paul, tried to get him reinstated.  

   But the city council didn't get to vote on the issue because City Manager, Kevin Bookout, pulled the item from the agenda saying he wanted to get a legal opinion on it first.  

   Newly elected council member Mick Cahill told Fox 2 news that Paul's supporters plan to put the reinstatement question back on the council agenda.  "We'll have to do it in a different way, putting it in as an amendment.  And then once we do that, we'll be able to take that and hopefully be able to vote on it," he said.

   City residents expressed outrage at a packed council meeting last night.  One recurring issue: the amount the impeachment battle is costing taxpayers, including an eight-thousand dollar bill for emergency PR services to handle the impeachment fallout.  

   Paul's attorney, Chet Pleban, told the council that the impeachment costs are going to continue to climb, because "Adam Paul's not going away." He added, "This 84,418 bucks is the beginning of your legal fees, not the end of your legal fees."

   Ellisville's ousted mayor is making good on his promise to appeal his impeachment in court.  Former Mayor Adam Paul filed an appeal in St. Louis County Circuit Court Wednesday asking a judge to overturn his April 8th impeachment.  

   But he didn't stop there.  

   Paul also filed a defamation lawsuit against his accusers.  The suit claims City Attorney Paul Martin, Council Member Matt Pirrello, City Manager Kevin Bookout and resident Katie James harmed his reputation by making unsubstantiated allegations against him.  

   Paul hand delivered a copy of the lawsuit to the city council at last night's council meeting.  

   The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the new city council, which took office Wednesday night, has decided not to appoint an interim mayor to take Paul's place.  The council plans to proceed with a special election, but the details have not yet been determined.

The city of Ellisville is without a mayor.  That's because the city council voted 5-to-1 to impeach Adam Paul Monday evening.  

Mayor Paul and his attorney Chet Pleban left before the final vote. They have maintained for weeks that the impeachment hearings and deliberation were just for show -- that the council's decision was a foregone conclusion based on Paul's opposition to using tax incentives to build a new Walmart.  

But former mayor, Councilman Matt Pirrello denies that and tells McGraw in the Morning here on the Big 550 although he's not a fan of tax increment financing--he would still vote in favor of the Walmart TIF.

Matt Pirrello says, "As a responsible leader for my community, I cannot sit back and let my municipality go broke standing on principle."  

Before taking the impeachment vote, the council found Paul guilty on six charges of violating the city's charter.  

Paul says he'll ask a St. Louis County judge to set aside the impeachment until the newly elected city council takes office April 17th so that the new council can make the decision. 

   The Ellisville City Council is expected to decide Monday evening whether or not to impeach their mayor, Adam Paul.  The council has scheduled public deliberations at 6:00 p.m.  

   If the council votes to oust Paul, he has said he'll sue.  

   The council has already retained attorneys to defend the impeachment, but the vigor of that defense is up in the air, since a newly elected council will be seated April 17th.  

   Three new council members were elected April 2nd - two of them are Paul supporters. The third hasn't made her position known.   Paul opponents Matt Pirrello and Rose Acup will remain on the council, along with Linda Reel, who had voted against charging Paul in the first place.  

   Mayor Paul was elected in April 2012 after campaigning against tax increment financing for a development that includes a new Walmart store.  The TIF was approved despite his opposition.

   The fate of Ellisville's embattled mayor won't be known until next week. The City Council was supposed to vote on Mayor Adam Paul's impeachment Wednesday, but postponed deliberations until Monday.  

   Paul and his attorney Chet Pleban spoke with KTRS's McGraw Millhaven Thursday morning about the proceedings.  

   Some of the charges against Mayor Paul were dropped last night - due to a lack of evidence.  Those include allegations Paul leaked confidential information.  Paul says those charges should never have been brought against him.  

   "Releasing confidential information is pretty, pretty significant, and they're pretty serious allegations," Paul told McGraw.  "And if you're going to put allegations like that out there, you better have some evidence."

   Paul's attorney Chet Pleban told KTRS's McGraw Millhaven this morning that the charges against his client keep shifting.  Pleban says although some charges against his client have been dropped, another charge - that Paul improperly questioned a city official - took center stage at last night's council meeting.  

   Pleban says the charge stems from an inquiry the mayor made on behalf of a constituent.  Pleban told McGraw that the resident wanted to know how he would be compensated for being displaced from low-income housing by the new Walmart development.

   "He went to the person who was the relocation expert and asked that question of what does this person get," Pleban said. "He got the answer to that question. He was satisfied with the answer, took it back to his constituent.  And now they want to impeach him for asking the relocation person that particular question." 

   Paul says that when the council finally votes on it, he expects to be ousted, and if that happens, he says he will sue.

   Pleban says the city council is already hiring legal representation in anticipation of that lawsuit.

The impeachment hearing Ellisville Mayor Adam Paul, will continue as planned on Monday night.

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A judge ruled against Paul's lawyer, Chet Pleban's request to postpone the hearing. The Post-Dispatch reports that Pleban claimed the city council was biased against Paul and the impeachment proceedings were unconstitutional. The judge said those issues should be raised at the hearing, which is being held one night before the city council elections.

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Paul is facing impeachment for several reasons, including allegedly throwing a former council member out of a meeting last year.

 

The suspended mayor of Ellisville will be the subject of a hearing in St. Louis County Court this afternoon (Thursday). Wednesday Mayor Adam Paul's attorney, Chet Pleban, spoke with KTRS's McGraw Millhaven.  

Pleban said his client is suing to stop the impeachment, which he called  collusion between city councilman, Matt Parillo and Ellisville city attorney, Paul Martin.  Pleban read emails on the air between the two that listed possible charges and laid out a plan to remove Mayor Paul from office. Pleban says Martin and Parillo took their plan to former city council woman Katie James three days before she formally presented the charges against the mayor as her own.

James tells McGraw Thursday morning she acted alone and only sought the advice of the city attorney and councilman Parillo. Katie James says, "I don't know why the city went farther with my charges, I'm not privy to that. Why they feel the relationship with the mayor has devolved that they feel they cannot work with him. I want the city just to work." "Did his actions rise to a level to overthrow a duly elected mayor of a town?" Katie James: And I don't have all the facts in that. Do I think he is a capable a mayor..no I do not." McGraw: "Again..should the vote of the people of Ellisville be overturned by the council?" James:"If he broke the law? Yes."

For months, James had claimed that Paul mistreated her when he tried to have police officers remove her from a meeting in May. When she learned of another incident where Paul had tried to remove a resident from a meeting in February. She tells McGraw that's when she decided to take action.

On the home page of the Ballwin/Ellisville Patch online newspaper, the news outlet features a breaking news item alerting readers that there would be breaking news on McGraw in the Morning at 9am today  (Wednesday) on KTRS 550AM (The Big 550).

Below is the story:

"Ellisville residents should listen to tomorrow's radio show sitting down," said Ellisville Mayor Adam Paul, due to the nature of what will be announced. The show will be 9-10 a.m.

Embattled Ellisville Mayor Adam Paul is scheduled as a radio guest on the McGraw Show—radio station 550AM—at 9 a.m. Wednesday. He is slated to discuss items he referred to Tuesday afternoon as "unbelievable."

Paul tells Patch major breaking news and developments will be released regarding his impeachment hearing, which is currently scheduled for April 1.

"If you are an Ellisville resident, you do not want to miss this segment," he said. 

Paul was suspended in February after the Ellisvile City Council approved a resolutionalleging the mayor had violated the city charter on several occasions. 

His interview will last until 10 a.m. "It will expose a lot of things, and connect the dots," he said.

 

 

http://ballwin-ellisville.patch.com/articles/mayor-adam-paul-impeachment-development-ellisville-residents-can-listen-live-wednesday-morning

The Ellisville City Council won't hold an impeachment hearing for suspended Mayor Adam Paul until they night before the next city election is held. The Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to push back the hearing until April 1.

Mayor Pro Tem Matt Pirrello told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Paul's attorney had asked for the extra five days in order to prepare his defense.

The council had suspended Paul February 27 on charges that he violated the city's charter. Paul has maintained that the action stemmed from his vigorous opposition to a controversial tax increment financing for a Walmart development.

Three city council seats will be decided in the April 2nd election.

Also last night, the City Council rejected tax incentives for a second proposed development from Sansone Group. The developer had already won a TIF for a Walmart project.