Stewart v. Sheppard

Summary

The Rhode Island Supreme Court held that the position of finance director for the Town of Lincoln was not coterminous with the town administrator's term of office. Because the finance director was a municipal officer entitled to the protections of the Lincoln Town Charter, the town administrator's purported termination of Stewart was invalid where the required resignation request or formal charges and removal proceedings were not followed. The court vacated the judgment and remanded for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. Section 7-1 of the Lincoln Town Charter is an organizational provision and does not make the finance-director position coterminous with the town administrator's term. It permits the town administrator to serve as finance director or appoint another person, but it does not authorize unilateral removal of the incumbent finance director.
2. The finance director is an officer of the Town of Lincoln under the 2002 amendment to Article XVII, section 17-3(3), and is entitled to the removal protections of Article XIV, section 14-10.
3. Stewart's purported firing was invalid because the defendant neither requested his resignation nor preferred charges against him before the town council as required by section 14-10.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the position of finance director under section 7-1 of the Lincoln Town Charter is coterminous with the term of office of the town administrator.
2. Whether Stewart, as finance director, was an officer of the town entitled to the removal protections of Article XIV, section 14-10 of the charter.
3. Whether the defendant's purported termination of Stewart was valid when she neither obtained his resignation nor preferred charges against him before the town council.

Disposition

vacated