Court orders reinstatement of ousted Prairie Village council member

The Kansas Court of Appeals on Friday ordered the reinstatement of a Prairie Village councilman who was ousted from office after letting a homeless friend sleep in City Hall.

The court found that David Morrison was improperly removed from office by a Johnson County judge’s order last October.

“That’s the best news I’ve had in a long time,” Morrison said Friday after learning of the ruling.

Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe, whose office filed the ouster motion, said Friday his office will ask the Kansas Supreme Court to review the decision.

“We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision,” Howe said. “We believe they applied the wrong legal standard.”

Prairie Village Mayor Ron Shaffer said the city, for now, will wait and see how the legal case is resolved and abide by whatever the final decision is.

“However it turns out, we will respect the opinion of the court,” Shaffer said.

Tom Bath, one of the lawyers who represented Morrison, said it was an example of a “little guy standing up to the government.”

“We believed this was not an appropriate use of government resources, and we’re glad the Court of Appeals agreed with us,” Bath said.

Officials had taken action to oust Morrison from office, saying he had violated city ethics rules by allowing the homeless friend to sleep at City Hall for several nights and not informing anyone of the arrangement.

After an investigation into the situation, the Prairie Village City Council voted to oust Morrison from office. After a trial in Johnson County District Court with an advisory jury, a district court judge ordered Morrison’s removal.

After Morrison’s ouster, Shaffer appointed Courtney McFadden to serve the remainder of the term, which expires in April 2016.

McFadden could not be reached for comment.

Morrison had been on the council since 2008. In 2012, he ran unopposed for re-election.

It was in October 2012 when Morrison allowed a longtime friend and former co-worker, Kelly Malone, to stay overnight at City Hall because he had nowhere else to go.

When Morrison and Malone entered the building together, Morrison told a Police Department employee that they were there for a neighborhood meeting.

Before he left for the night, Morrison gave Malone his security code for building access.

The next night, Morrison explained Malone’s presence by saying they were doing paperwork.

After spending one night sleeping in a friend’s car, Malone asked Morrison if he could again sleep at City Hall. Morrison told him that would not be a good idea, but Malone went to City Hall on his own and again spent the night.

The next morning, after a number of employees saw Malone in the building and reported his presence to police, the chief deactivated Morrison’s security code and launched the investigation that led to Morrison’s ouster.

“The undisputed evidence reflects a series of events that can only be described as reflecting breathtakingly bad judgment by Mr. Morrison,” Johnson County District Judge David Hauber said in ordering Morrison’s removal from office.

The judge found that his bad judgment was exacerbated by Morrison misleading city officials and the court about the situation.

The judge also found that Malone posed an unnecessary risk to the health and security of other city employees.

“The foregoing suggests that Mr. Morrison was willing to compromise his own integrity, the integrity of the city and the security of others because it appealed to his own need to be regarded as a benefactor to Mr. Malone,” the judge found.

But in Friday’s ruling, the appeals court found no evidence that Morrison’s actions “arose out of an evil or corrupt motive; out of a habitual disregard for his public duty; out of a quest for selfish gain; or resulted in a serious threat to public safety.”

Because those are the factors the law requires for the “drastic” step of ouster, the court found that the law had been misapplied in Morrison’s case.

It found that a “simple error of judgment” is not sufficient.

Morrison said that he was eager to once again have the “pleasure and privilege” of serving as a councilman.

“I’m glad to return to work on behalf of the residents of my ward,” he said.

This story was originally published October 10, 2014 at 10:26 AM with the headline "Court orders reinstatement of ousted Prairie Village council member."