FALMOUTH — City Council voted 5-1 Thursday to begin an investigation of Mayor Gene Flaugher's actions regarding the alteration of a Kentucky Ethics Commission opinion.

        The vote followed the mayor's refusal to resign.

        City Council had called the special session Thursday to request Mr. Flaugher's resignation. Instead, the mayor demanded someone look into the circumstances that had caused five of the six council members to call for his ouster, and presented a copy of the commonwealth's statutes regarding impeaching mayors.

        The ethics commission opinion that was altered suggested that Mr. Flaugher could not appoint Bobbie Joe Pettit as city fire chief because Mr. Pettit already served as deputy state fire marshal, a conflict of interest.

        The final paragraph of that Ethics Commission opinion had been removed before it was distributed to City Council in February, according to council members and the mayor. Mr. Flaugher said he had nothing to do with the paragraph's removal and has no knowledge of how it happened.

        "It's obvious there was an alteration. We're just not clear on the situation it was done in,” said Henry Watson III, Falmouth city attorney. Thursday's call for Mr. Flaugher's resignation resulted from a closed council meeting in March dealing with the alteration.

        At that March session, Mr. Flaugher had made a “verbal, gentleman's agreement” to resign if council held back on investigating the incident, Councilman Don Cross said after Thursday's meeting.

        But Thursday night, Mr. Flaugher said no such deal had been made. “I have a right to a hearing, but council doesn't have the right to play judge and jury,” he said.

        “They've been getting together at the McDonald's, at the beauty shops, at organizations all over town, alleging that I'm guilty,” the mayor said.

        Councilwoman Janet Fields said she saw no other option than to move for a formal investigation because Mr. Flaugher refused to resign.

        Another option, one that Mr. Flaugher had brought forth, does exist. He distributed copies of the Kentucky Revised Statute 83A.040(9), which says that a mayor may be impeached with a unanimous vote by the council for any of three charges — “misconduct, incapacity or willful neglect in the performance of the duties of his office.”

After the riots in Cincinnati: Continuing coverage
School funding plan worries CPS officials
CPS may lose under funding plan
Motorists taking hits in wallets
Rhodes: Levy scare is political
After the Holocaust: Starting over
Blood test can help predict infertility
Police: Woman ran previous spa
Blows to head killed woman in river
Fix-up scam reported in Butler Co.
Boy's death still probed
Campbell seniors' redone writing due today
Clinic licenses heart-assist pump for production
Earth Day events include park party
Falmouth to investigate mayor
Hamilton's North End spiffs up
Judge approves sale of some of Wilkinson's stores
Ky. on foot-and-mouth alert
Lawsuit filed in shooting death
McConnell challenger to visit
Ohio miniature railroad chugging to national fame
Popular Rodger is sacked from 'Survivor'
Queensgate crash kills 3
Sayler Park chorus rises against plant
School sale advised
Wilkens Blvd. opens
Withrow gets $10,000 for students' computer access
Kentucky News Briefs
Tristate A.M. Report