03-04-2025
Judge denies impeached Carthage mayor's request for immediate reinstatement
CARTHAGE, Mo. — A Cole County Judge rules against embattled former mayor Dan Rife in his request to be immediately reinstated as the mayor of Carthage.
PREVIOUS: Hearing underway to decide fate of embattled Carthage mayor
The civil suit was a request to review the City of Carthage's impeachment of, then-Mayor, Rife and to immediately reinstate him. Rife's primary argument was that the Carthage City Council did not have enough votes to impeach him. At the time of the impeachment hearing, there were only eight seated city council members. Two of the seats were vacant due to resignations.
At the beginning of the impeachment hearing, Rife's attorney objected to Mayor Pro Tem Alan Snow's ruling that six votes were enough to get rid of Rife. All of the council members were present and participated in the hearing. The six council members who voted for impeachment signed the Articles of Impeachment.
In today's ruling, Judge Cotton Walker said that Rife did not ask the entire council to weigh in on whether they agreed with Snow's ruling on the number of votes they needed to impeach him and therefore, had waived his right to have that issue reviewed by a court.
Christopher Thornton, Rife's attorney, has made the number of votes used to impeach his client as his central argument. He also objected to the issue at the beginning of the impeachment trial.
'Before we begin I would like to make a couple things on the record, if I could. One is, I noted that you made a ruling that six votes will be required tonight by the Board of Impeachment to convict. I want to renew my objection to that. As briefed, we believe that the correct number is seven, and I would like to make that objection on the record.'
Christopher Thornton, Impeachment Trial of Dan Rife
Paul Martin, the council's impeachment attorney, said today that Rife had the obligation to ask all of the council members to weigh in on whether they agreed with Snow's ruling about the number of votes needed for impeachment.
Today we spoke with a few council members about Judge Cotton's ruling and asked whether they understood Rife had an obligation to ask every member of the council.
'I didn't know,' Snow said. 'I was advised on hearing procedures by the hearing officer, Mr. Engelmeyer. I didn't know that any other procedure was necessary.'
City council member Lori Leece was equally confused by today's ruling. She echoed Snow's response and said they had already received a legal opinion on the matter.
'I didn't think I had to [weigh in] because the City Attorney, Jon Gold, advised Alan Snow about how many votes were needed to impeach,' Leece said.
'Acting as a juror in the impeachment hearing, this wasn't in the rules given to us as a Council.'
'We raised that question, and so did the city's attorney,' said council member Chris Taylor. 'The city's attorney told them they needed at least seven votes. He testified to that at the hearing. Lori and I voted no because we knew they needed at least seven votes to impeach.'
'I wish the judge would have ruled based on case law and precedence, not on his own interpretation,' Leece said.
Neither Martin or Thornton were completely clear as to what happens next based on Judge Cotton's ruling from today. Both said they needed time to review the 15-page order, but they both thought today's ruling was only in reference to Rife's request for Summary Judgment. While Thornton and Rife are trying to determine what happens next, Rife had one thing to say about today's ruling…
'I'm not done. I'm not quitting.'
This tense power struggle within Carthage city government first emerged in mid-2023, when Mayor Dan Rife fired all the board members of the city-owned Carthage Water and Electric Plant because they failed to comply with his request for financial details.
The City Council immediately reinstated the members of the board, drawing a battle line that pitted former City Administrator Greg Dagnan, Mayor Dan Rife, and former City Attorney Nate Dally against the council and backers of the CWEP board.
That was followed by criminal charges of embezzlement against former Parks & Recreation Director Mark Peterson, after Dagnan reportedly found money missing when preparing the city budget. After a forensic audit, Peterson is facing felony charges of money laundering and stealing.
Backers of CWEP's board, dotted with powerful people, including some elected officials, formed a political action committee, Carthage Citizens United, to promote candidates for the City Council who would fire Dagnan and impeach Rife.
That slate of Jana Schramm, Tom Barlow, Dustin Edge, and Derek Peterson – son of the accused former Parks & Recreation director – was elected April 2, and immediately fired Dagnan and started the impeachment of Rife, who had blocked the firing. The city attorney, the administrative assistant, the fire chief, and a few other city employees resigned.
Dagnan has sued the City for wrongful termination and defamation, and against CCU for tortious interference with his contract, and Rife had sued to stop his impeachment because of due process. All of this has led to legal missteps, illegally closed meetings, and rebuke by the state attorney general's office. Dustin Edge resigned from the council. Tiffany Cossey lost her council seat after a large majority of voters from Ward 5 said 'yes' to a recall question on the November 2024 ballot (see updated information in the links below).
The city also received a letter from its insurer warning that coverage could be lost or diminished because 'terminations by the council' were not following employment law.
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