Fouts’s attempt to cling to power through lawsuit draws ire of Warren City Council
The fourth-term mayor is trying to decertify Tuesday’s upcoming special election
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The Warren City Council blasted Mayor Jim Fouts for filing a lawsuit Wednesday in a last-minute attempt to cling to power and derail the upcoming mayoral primary election.
Fouts alleges in a federal lawsuit that his civil rights were violated when he was prevented from running for a fifth term.
The suit seeks to decertify the upcoming Tuesday primary election and add Fouts’s name to the ballot for a special election.
Fouts, who has been mayor since 2007, was removed from the ballot after the Michigan Court of Appeals in April ruled that he is ineligible to run for reelection because of term limits approved by voters.
Despite the court ruling – and the Michigan Supreme Court’s refusal to hear an appeal – Fouts insists he is a victim of a malicious city council that sought to retroactively enforce a three-term mayor limit passed in a 2020 city charter amendment.
“The amendment passed, however, despite including explicit language as to retroactivity in all prior term-limit provisions of the Warren City charter, the 2020 ballot question does not include any language as to retroactive application,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit was filed against the city council, Warren Election Commission, City Clerk Sonja Buffa, and Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini.
Council President Patrick Green, one of six candidates running for mayor in Tuesday’s primary election, denounced Fouts for wasting “more taxpayer dollars” on a “frivolous lawsuit.”
“I will instruct our attorneys to seek sanctions and costs for this last- minute frivolous lawsuit that is designed to suppress voter participation in next week’s election,” Green said in a statement. “By suing the city council, the mayor is again increasing litigation costs for the taxpayers rather than simply follow the plain language of our city charter. The voters of the city decided overwhelmingly (67%) that all city offices should have the same term limits of the greater of three complete terms or 12 years in each office. We have had numerous lawsuits involving the mayor and it always boils down to the same thing: Mayor Fouts wants to find a loophole to circumvent our voter-approved city charter.”
Green says Fouts has lost touch with voters and is no longer popular.
“The mayor has spun out of control and residents are tired of the divisiveness and constant battles,” Green says. “Instead of doing his job, he has been holding press conferences and speeches where he has lengthy outbursts against his perceived enemies in the government, media, and courts. This is a sad ending to a long political career for a mayor who cannot accept that his time is up. I fear we are going to face more legal issues as the mayor’s time in offices winds down.”
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