Two months after his ouster as Shorewood Hills president, John Imes is asking a Dane County Court judge to review whether the village board complied with state law in removing him.

A narrow majority of Imes’ colleagues voted on May 12 to remove him from office. In a July 9 letter to media, Imes thanked those who had supported him through the ordeal, and said the decision to challenge his removal “was not made lightly.”

"I continue to believe this is about something larger than one office or one individual. It is about ensuring that local government follows fair process, applies the law consistently, and respects the trust voters place in their elected officials,” he added.

Village of Shorewood Hills trustees reached a 4-3 decision to remove Imes after a five and a half hour quasi-judicial hearing that dismayed some in the audience. One village resident told Isthmus the ordeal was “a little bit of a circus.” (The meeting was also streamed on Facebook; it has since disappeared, but an Isthmus recording is available here).

Trustees invoked a little-used state statute that permits removal of village board members in cases of “continued physical inability to perform the duties of office or gross neglect of duty.” The statute dates to 1947, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau, and does not additionally define “gross neglect.”

That left trustees to interpret the statute themselves. They alleged Imes’ failure to provide a profit-and-loss statement related to a nixed plan to purchase a building for a new village hall, and his use of personal email accounts for village business, amounted to a violation of his “fiduciary duty of honesty in the conduct of public affairs,” according to a final decision.

The decision followed months of rancor in the village over local zoning decisions, a now-nixed proposal to purchase a new building for village administration, and mounting records requests involving allegations over a profit-and-loss statement related to that potential purchase. As Isthmus reported, that had ripple effects — including the resignations of more than half a dozen village staff in less than a year, most of whom cited an atmosphere of overwork, burnout, and/or hostility in their resignation letters.

Imes’ petition, filed July 7 in Dane County Court and assigned to Judge Jacob Frost, asks the judge to reinstate Imes and grant “other relief as the Court deems just and equitable,” along with payment of “all recoverable fees and costs.” It alleges that the village board’s decision was “arbitrary, oppressive, and unreasonable” because it denied Imes due process, applied the wrong legal standard, and lacked sufficient evidence to remove him in the first place.

Imes’ petition argues that the vote was tainted from the outset: “Two individuals on the adjudicative body whose conduct demonstrated a high probability of bias rendered the entirety of the removal proceedings unconstitutional,” according to the petition.

Those two individuals are Brian Utschig, a trustee who helped bring the complaint to oust Imes, and trustee Rocky Van Asten. Imes asked both Utschig and Van Asten to recuse themselves based on previous comments about Imes’ character and performance. Neither did, and both voted to remove Imes.

The petition also argues that trustees failed to crystallize a cohesive definition of “gross neglect of duty,” and instead relied on definitions drawn from criminal and ethics statutes. Imes contends there’s no finding that he abandoned his post, and that the allegations behind the complaint are the result of “conjecture and speculation.”

Shorewood Hills trustees have until July 27 to file a reply brief. Shabnam Lotfi, who herself has faced scrutiny for conduct as a trustee, is now village president. Lotfi says the village was “aware of the lawsuit” and “takes the matter seriously.” She declined to comment on the specifics of the case, but says the village “will respond through the appropriate legal process and is confident in the record supporting the board's action.”

“We remain focused on serving the Shorewood Hills community,” she adds.