His Honor the Mayor

The Leavenworth City Commission voted to remove mayor Shay Baker from office after she wrote a letter to a judge asking for leniency for family friend convicted of drug charges. But now some people are questioning whether the commission had the legal right to fire her.
Baker says that she wrote the letter to help a friend, and never expected it to lead to her dismissal as mayor.
"I wrote the letter simply because his family asked me to in order to consider a reasonable sentence for him," said Baker about the letter which asked for leniency for Billie Trinkle, who was convicted of drug charges. She says that she has known his family for years, and did not write the letter on city stationery or intend for her personal views to imply that the city supported him.
"I handed the letter to the family, they had my business card and when they faxed it over to the lawyer they taped the business card to the bottom of the letter," said Baker, who has yet to decide whether to challenge the commission's decision.
"I don't think it was the right thing for the city commission to do," said Baker. "I believe there should have been a little more time for reflection."
When word of the letter spread around town, a special city commission meeting was called and Baker was voted out as mayor. New Leavenworth mayor Davis Moulden (LHS Class of 1957) says that writing the letter showed poor judgment on Baker's part.
"We are doing everything we can to keep these kids clean and honest and off these drugs and the drug dealers out of our town," said Moulden. "Then she's gonna defend one? Give me a break."
But some people are asking whether the commission had the legal right to remover Baker as mayor. Leavenworth city attorney Thomas Dawson admits that the answer is not entirely clear.
"There is no precedence for this, however our city code allows the city commission annually to select a mayor," said Dawson.
Leavenworth business owner Debra Bates Lamborn says that the city commissioner should have handled things differently.
"The city attorney hadn't even explored all of the avenues of the legalities because it's never happened before, and he wasn't even sure if there were any laws broken with the city commission acting as they did," said Lamborn.
But for Moulden, there was no legal gray area.
"If we can put the mayor in, then obviously we can take the mayor out," said Moulden.
Reported by Monica Evans on fox4kc.com