WARREN (WWJ) – A circuit court judge on Thursday granted the Warren City Council’s request for a preliminary injunction against Mayor Jim Fouts to prevent him from “further diverting city funds in violation of the adopted fiscal year budget.”
Fouts is accused of intentionally violating the city’s approved budget and diverting $675,000 in unapproved spending from the Warren Downtown Development Authority and using it for television ads.
Last May, the Warren City Council approved a $292 million budget for the fiscal year 2022, but had cut a large portion of it from the DDA that had been earmarked for a TV ad campaign, according to the city council.
The council began objecting to the mayor’s use of his own unapproved budget at its regular meetings last July. Council officials say Fouts posted his own budget requests on the city website and proceeded to implement the “Mayor’s Budget” without any authority to do so.
Thursday’s injunction aims to keep him from spending any more money.
Fouts responded to the injunction, noting that Thursday’s ruling was a preliminary injunction and not a final ruling.
“I respectfully disagree with the judge’s ruling, but I am grateful for how fast he made it. My team has a city to run, and we need answers,” Fouts said. “Practically speaking, the decision will freeze spending for the DDA; although that is inconvenient, it is probably best, until we have a final decision on how to view the budget. Because I continue to believe that no branch of government rules supreme, I want to test today’s ruling on appeal.”
City Council President Patrick Green said the council is “pleased with this ruling.”
”We have a rogue Mayor who is spending large sums of taxpayer dollars without any authority,” Green said. “The mayor was a 26-year council member and a former government teacher, and he knows the rules. City Council has the final authority over the budget and the Mayor has intentionally disregarded the law so he can promote himself.”
Fouts filed a lawsuit earlier this month, claiming they did not follow proper procedure when adopting the 2021-2022 budget, a violation of the Warren City Charter.
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