Missing city councilman resigns amid election scandal in this small Johnson County town
Missing Spring Hill City Councilman Steve Owen resigned from his seat on the board and issued a scathing rebuke of city leaders this week after his month-long boycott of public meetings failed to stop the controversy-ridden council from appointing several new members.
Owen accused the new council of trying to stymie citizen input in an attempt to avoid accountability in the wake of an election scandal that has rocked the small town over the past four months.
He also said he “lost all confidence” in the city attorney and could not participate with new council members in a resignation letter he hand-delivered to new Mayor Joe Berkey just before the council’s meeting Thursday night.
“I fear the opportunity for citizen input will be greatly decreased in an attempt to control the narrative and provide cover for governing body members who do not like to be questioned or put on the spot publicly,” Owen wrote. “If the mayor and council, along with city administrative staff, continue on this path they will achieve the apathy on the part of citizens that they are strongly promoting. Citizen apathy allows a governing body and city administrative staff to make decisions without accountability.”
The controversy began last fall when former councilman Tyler Graves won the race for mayor in November, but shocked community members by announcing days later that he would vacate both his council seat and the mayor’s job as his family moved out of state.
The stunning reversal left some residents feeling duped, city leaders unsure of who to appoint to the mayor’s post and how to fill out the remainder of the open council seats after ballots had already been counted.
Owen, the previous council president, believed he was in line to become mayor in January but the council instead voted to name newly elected councilman Berkey as mayor. Owen cast the lone vote against the move and left the meeting in protest, leaving the shorthanded council without enough members present to vote on official city business.
The former councilman vanished — skipping meeting after meeting without explanation, temporarily preventing the council from taking any formal action, including appointments to fill the council seats left vacant by Graves’ departure and Berkey’s elevation to mayor. Residents suspicious of the election kerfuffle accused the remaining council members of coordinating the vacancies to consolidate power among their supporters and tried to confront city officials in support of Owen, even though none had spoken with him since he disappeared.
City officials were unable to speak with Owen at length about his mysterious protest and city attorney Charles Dunlay finally broke the standoff at the end of January by identifying a technicality that allowed remaining council members Brian Peel and Diana Roth to appoint another colleague. New Councilman Chad Young was appointed that night, giving it enough members to resume voting on city business, and the council has met normally since.
Evidently unsatisfied, Owen chose to resign rather than return to council meetings. He delivered his resignation letter to Berkey before the council’s meeting Thursday night and once again did not appear at the meeting itself.
“Councilman Steve Owen did come by to my office tonight and submitted a letter of resignation effective immediately,” Berkey said at the start of the meeting. “He is stepping down from his position on the council and we do want to thank him for his years of service. He has served faithfully and we do appreciate all he’s given to the city council and the city and all its citizens.”
In his resignation letter, Owen insinuated Young had inappropriately asked him about his feelings regarding an upcoming council vote during a phone call early this week and noted he had “lost all confidence” in Dunlay as city attorney. Attempts to reach both Young and Dunlay about the letter were unsuccessful Friday.
Two of Dunlay’s legal opinions regarding Peel’s service on the council and the procedure to fill the mayor’s post were released at Owen’s request last month, but neither aligned with Owen’s apparent criticism of the council’s actions. Owen’s supporters had expected he would return to the council once the opinions were released, but were instead surprised to learn he had resigned Thursday night.
“Not becoming Mayor doesn’t mean you resign and stop supporting those that supported you,” wrote Roy Riffel, who unsuccessfully ran for council last year, in a post in one town Facebook group. “He asked for the legal opinions to be released pretending there was some smoking gun. Nope. Nothing there. Matter of fact, they were not in his favor. Fooled all of us supporters.”
At Thursday’s meeting, the remaining council members voted to appoint Zoning Board of Appeals member Wendy North to fill the seat opened by Berkey’s appointment to mayor.
Owen’s resignation ironically opens another council seat that now must be filled by an appointment. The city will accept letters of interest for the position through noon Thursday and will consider an appointment later this month.
This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 5:28 PM with the headline "Missing city councilman resigns amid election scandal in this small Johnson County town."
