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Dave Klaber, former Falmouth Fire Chief, takes the oath of office after his appointment to Falmouth City Council. Klaber, who was recently terminated by Mayor Sebastian Ernst for reasons the Falmouth Outlook cannot confirm, was chosen from a pool of five applicants for the position. Klaber was on council from January 2019 through December 2020, when he left to take the position of fire chief. -
Darryl Ammerman responds -
Social Media post
By Carolyn Reid
After a little over an hour in closed session on December 19, Falmouth City Council returned to the chambers to serve Mayor Sebastian Ernst with impeachment papers.
Falmouth City Hall was not as packed as it had been for recent meetings, but the drama ensued even before the meeting was called to order. Councilperson Luke Price was quick to make a motion the agenda that had been scheduled the day before by City Clerk Susan Bishop be replaced by an agenda Councilperson Sabrina Hazen proposed. The vote was unanimous to use Hazen’s proposed agenda.
According to Hazen, she made the agenda council accepted after receiving the agenda from city hall. That agenda, she says, did not have the items council had specifically asked be placed on it--those items being installing a new council member, which had to be completed within 30 days of Darryl Ammerman’s resignation, and a closed session to “hold discussions or hearings which might lead to the...dismissal of the member.”
While the mayor pointed to the items on the original agenda, council plowed forward with the vote according to the accepted agenda which included the approval of six sets of minutes ranging from October 17, 2023 through the special meeting held December 14, 2023.
Minutes are usually approved on a monthly basis, but council called for adjournment during November’s regular meeting due to the mayor using the meeting as a town hall which was not on the agenda.
Tuesday night, in a move toward conducting council business that had been on hold, all minutes from previous meetings were approved. They then held a first reading of the budget amendment to allow for monies for the lawyer who represents the council..
A second reading of the budget amendment will be required.
The council swiftly moved to place Dave Klaber on council to replace Ammerman. Klaber was a council member until he sought the chief’s position in 2020 and chose not to run for another term on council. The mayor fired him from his position as chief late last month, making .
Once Klaber took his seat on council, they voted to go into closed session as per KRS 61.810(1)(f): (1) All meetings of a quorum of the members of any public agency at which any public business is discussed or at which any action is taken by the agency, shall be public meetings, open to the public at all times, except for the following: (f) Discussions or hearings which might lead to the appointment, discipline, or dismissal of an individual employee, member, or student without restricting that employee’s, member’s, or student’s right to a public hearing if requested. This exception shall not be interpreted to permit discussion of general personnel matters in secret.
During their absence, the mayor gave the audience the numbers he had run for utilities, stressing the city has enough money set aside to purchase the lot on the corner of Shelby and Main where the Assembly stood, to build a splash pad, and to continue the rehab of the Falmouth School Center, and loans toward those ends would be reasonable to take out because of the business these areas would generate, bringing in tax dollars to offset the expenses. He also discussed rate increases for the utilities he deems necessary to keep in the city.
The mayor’s plan calls for outsourcing garbage and electricity. The electrical grid will cost millions to revamp.
Part of the mayor’s discussion, too, rested on the loss of Darryl Ammerman, who resigned late the week before. This statement led to speculation and questions from the community. Ammerman reached out to the Outlook to clarify his reason for leaving, saying, “Contrary to what I have heard [as reasons for leaving], I was not intimidated by anyone to resign from Falmouth City Council. This was my personal decision.”
Before the mayor finished presenting his plan, Falmouth City Council returned, being escorted by four of the five officers of the police department, and voted to come out of closed session. Councilperson Joyce Carson then read the three charges levied against the mayor:
1.Mayor Ernst acted with misconduct and/or willful neglect in the performance of the duties of his office when he prohibited a civic organization from using city property because he deemed that the group fails to meet his “Conservative Christian values.” See, Exhibit 1, a copy of the Mayor’s text message to Rick Brown, November 18, 2023.
2.Mayor Ernst acted with misconduct and/or willful neglect in the performance of the duties of his office when he began using his personal Facebook account as the official account for the office of Falmouth Mayor and then used that account to market property he and/or his mother own for sale or lease. These actions violate Falmouth Ord.
§39.15(b), “No officer or employee shall intentionally use or attempt to use his or her official position with the city to secure unwarranted privileges or advantages for himself or herself or others.” See, Exhibit 2, page 8 a copy of the Mayor s Facebook post describing various actions he is or will take as mayor and also announcing that he has “retail space available” with a photograph of a building the mayor owns, on October 30, 2023. See also, page 10 of this exhibit in which the mayor announces there is commercial space available in Falmouth, which he owns on September 15, 2023.
3. Mayor Ernst acted with misconduct and/or willful neglect in the performance of the duties of his office when he attempted to extort Council member Robert Pettit into resignation. See, Exhibit 3, a copy of a message from the mayor to the council member on November 12, 2023 demanding his resignation or else he would attend a school board meeting “to present evidence of assault on a minor. [The mayor will] have the parents and families willing to come with [him] to demand a criminal investigation.”
After the charges were presented to the mayor in the form of impeachment papers, all signed after the reading and the unanimous vote to proceed with the impeachment hearing, the council adjourned.
The impeachment hearing is scheduled for noon, January 2, with the Honorable Bob McGinnis presiding. It is a public hearing.
If the mayor is removed, he will not be able to run for the seat again until Election 2026, when his current term expires.