Judge: Hearing to remove DeBary mayor can move ahead

Mayor accused of violating city charter

DELAND, Fla. – The City of DeBary is one step closer to finding out if Mayor Clint Johnson is staying put, after a judge denied an injunction to delay the June 1 meeting.

"It's been frustrating," said Johnson.

The meeting is to figure out if Johnson violated city charter by giving orders to council members. Council will also decide if he should be removed from office.

"I hope the city is going to give me a fair shake in this and realize there are no grounds to this removal," said Mayor Johnson.

City Attorney Dan Langley said the council received an allegation of a charter violation on May 4 and said a public hearing is necessary to determine what to do next.

"Essentially, the plaintiff's argument is that he doesn't believe there's been any violation of the charter, therefore, the city can't hold a hearing to determine that he violated charter. Well, that's the whole point of a public hearing," said Langley.

But Johnson's attorney said there's more to this story than just a charter violation.

"You got a mayor who would not go along with a Sunshine Law violation, who would not go along with dealings on the property with the St. John's River Water Management district and he's paying the price," said County Councilman Doug Daniels.

FDLE and the State Attorney's Office raided DeBary City Hall this week and confiscated more than 37,000 emails between the city manager and council members that discussed the property in question. Johnson wasn't subpoenaed.

"I've been very transparent as I could possibly be, that might go towards as why I wasn't included in the search warrant for records. For the sake of the voters, I would hope they would have respect for the thousands of people that put me in office and not to try and sidestep with a minor technicality," said Johnson.

Meanwhile, Johnson's attorney believes the council is violating its own charter rules by combining two separate meetings into one. Daniels said council members are supposed to hold one meeting to determine if the mayor violated charter and then another meeting to determine if he should be removed from office.


About the Author:

Loren Korn is a native Texan who joined the News 6 team as a reporter in May 2014. She was born and raised in Houston and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Journalism.