Michigan Supreme Court won't take up term-limit case involving Warren Mayor Jim Fouts
The political end may be nigh for Warren Mayor Jim Fouts as the Michigan Supreme Court dealt what may be the final blow to his mayoral career.
The court on Wednesday declined to hear an appeal by Warren City Clerk Sonja Buffa and the Warren Election Commission after the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Fouts was not eligible to run this year for another term as mayor.
"The application for leave to appeal the April 21, 2023, judgment of the Court of Appeals is considered, and it is DENIED, because we are not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this Court," according to the Michigan Supreme Court's two-line order.
Fouts, who has been mayor since 2007, was seeking a fifth term as the city's top official. He could not be immediately reached for comment, but issued a notice Wednesday afternoon saying that "in light of recent developments," he plans a news conference Thursday at City Hall.
Voters approved term limits in 2020; wording was challenged
His hopes were high in March after a Macomb County Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of Buffa and the Warren Election Commission, saying he was eligible.
But they were dashed less than a month later by the Court of Appeals when it ruled in favor of the Warren City Council and Councilman Ron Papandrea, who challenged because of mayoral term limits approved by voters in 2020.
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The Court of Appeals judges said Buffa was to “immediately disqualify” Fouts as a candidate for mayor and not place his name on the ballot.
His name in the mayoral candidate list on the Macomb County Election Department website initially had a line through it with “(Disqualified)” after it. An updated candidate list on the website does not include his name.
Six other candidates are running for mayor in the Aug. 8 primary.
Time was short for the Michigan Supreme Court to decide whether to hear the matter. If the court took the case, lawyers asked that it have a decision before ballots are due to the printer June 2.
'I don't see any other pathway for the mayor to get on the ballot'
The court granted a motion for immediate consideration and a motion by the Ukrainian Civic Committee of Metropolitan Detroit to file a friend of the court brief in the case. But it denied the application to appeal.
"We're pleased with the decision of the Supreme Court that let stand the Court of Appeals decision that upholds the will of the people of Warren who voted overwhelmingly for term limits," said Jeff Schroder, the attorney representing the City Council.
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"I don't see any other pathway for the mayor to get on the ballot because he's ineligible."
Lawrence Garcia, who is representing Buffa and the Warren Election Commission, said he shared the news with his clients, but had no official comment on their behalf.
City Council President Pat Green, who is running for mayor, said the Michigan Supreme Court's decision upholds the will of Warren residents who voted for term limits.
"Government and government officials are not above the law. We would not have these lawsuits if we had officials that followed the law. This costly litigation was unnecessary because the voters spoke loudly and clearly at ballot box,” Green said in a release.
Fouts has been an officeholder in Warren for decades — spending more than two decades on City Council before being elected mayor. He was seeking a fifth four-year term as mayor of Michigan’s third-most populous city.
Fouts was not named a party in any of the lawsuits, but the decisions by the courts directly affect him.
The Michigan Supreme Court took up a case pertaining to Warren City Council members term limits in 2019. It made a ruling in June of that year that four veteran councilmen's names were to be off the primary ballot, reversing a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling that would have allowed the four names to be on the ballot. That term-limit situation was a seesaw battle through the courts with expedited appeals.
Term-limit questions have appeared in ballot questions before Warren voters in 1998, 2016 and 2020.
City Attorney Ethan Vinson issued an opinion that the 2020 term limits did not bar Fouts from running for a fifth term. Voters approved a city charter amendment that a mayor should have the same term limits as other elected city officeholders, which is the greater of three complete terms, or 12 years.
The 2020 vote didn’t affect Fouts’ fourth, four-year term, which began in 2019, but it did appear that he would be unable to seek a fifth term.
Vinson's opinion, which was accepted by the Warren Election Commission during an Election Day meeting in November, stated it was not clear that the ballot proposal approved by voters in 2020 should apply to Fouts.
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: State Supreme Court won't hear case on Warren Mayor Fouts term limits
