Elsmere City Councilmember Serena Owen has not attended a city council meeting in person since June, having missed 13 out of 18 meetings in 2024.
Her lack of attendance and votes on city business has led to backlash among some community members and candidates for city council, but there’s more to this story than a single official’s absenteeism.
“Public safety and the safety of elected officials is an urgent matter, especially since there are continued threats and violence against current and past elected officials like District Judge Kevin Mullins (RIP), who was recently shot and killed inside his Chambers and with the assassination attempts on former President Trump,” Owens said in an email to LINK nky in October. “Safety is a concern, and the safety of our council, administration, community members, and everyone is important to me. Everyone who serves and attends our council meetings should be safe.”
Why is Owens talking about safety? It’s a long story, so we will start at the beginning.
“If you’re not coming to these meetings that are one to two hours twice a month, what is the point of being on the ballot?” said Eric Bunzow, an Elsmere resident and employee with the Kenton County Board of Elections. “What is the point of wanting to be there and representing the city? Because you’re not representing the city: You’re not coming in, you’re not doing your notes, you’re not telling about the stuff you did. It’s just like no call, no show to work.”
Bunzow has been among the more vocal critics against Owen, although he’s not the only one. He’s part of the reason why Owen said she feels unsafe attending the council meetings, but really the situation goes back much farther than Bunzow’s involvement.
Owen was first elected at the end of 2022 for a two-year term. She was the first woman of color to be elected to the council.
She previously served on the Erlanger-Elsmere Independent Public Schools Board of Education and has been active in other community organizations, such as the Kentucky Voting Rights Coalition and the Erlanger-Elsmere Historical Society as well as multiple charitable efforts. Her mother, Renee Wilson, is an Erlanger City Council member, and her husband, Larry Owen, sits on the Kenton County Conservation District Board.
Owen got the second-highest vote count in the 2024 election.
When Owen was first elected, she requested to have her wages as a council member waived and donated to a charitable organization. Owen sent a letter to the city staff in October of last year requesting to have her pay waived again in 2024.
The issue is that Kentucky state law requires cities to set payment rates for elected officials. Cities can establish ordinances to allow council members and mayors to waive their pay, but the current Elsmere city ordinance mandates a payment rate of $250 a month for council members.
Elsmere’s non-elected city staff has had a high turnover rate over the past few years, having gone through multiple city administrators, clerks and police chiefs. As a result, city operations were in flux, and based on correspondence and documents obtained through a public records request, it appears the city did not, in fact, issue Owen pay for her duties as a council member in the course of 2023.
An email in LINK’s records request from former City Administrator Michael Bartlett states that money owed to Owen in 2023 was issued with a paper check this summer. Owen did not set up direct deposit, which seems to be part of the reason she had not previously been issued a payment for her duties as a council member. A check–the pay stub for which was provided in LINK’s records request–for the amount of $3,722.55 was issued to Owen on May 20, 2024. Subsequent pay stubs to Owen, as well as records of payment for the other council members, were also included in LINK’s records request.
Other reasons why the city didn’t issue Owen payment previously are unclear. The city treasurer did not respond to LINK nky’s inquiries, but the issuing of the payment for 2023 sparked an argument between Owen, the city attorney, the city administrator and others the city consulted with on the matter.
Owen hasn’t cashed any of her checks, and in an email to the mayor, treasurer, clerk and city administrator on March 8, 2024, she reiterated her desire to waive her pay.
“I value the fine residents of Elsmere and would rather their tax dollars be spent to help them directly via improved infrastructure, public safety, business support, economic development, environmental justice and accessibility accommodations for all members of our community,” Owen wrote in an email.
City Attorney Greg Voss responded on March 10, saying there were issues with Owen refusing pay.
“First, the pay scale is set without exception,” Voss wrote in response. “Next, compensation has to be adjusted by ordinance only. Finally, service time is used in determining pension benefits. Based on those concerns I do not think a waiver has impact on the city responsibility to pay the compensation.”
Owen did not accept this and reaffirmed her desire to waive her pay in an email on March 27.
“My calling in life is to help others,” Owen wrote. “I am again reiterating as I did when I was elected in 2022 and again in 2023, that I have not received any payment for serving on City Council since I began serving in January 2023. I continue to waive any payment and/or stipend for serving on Elsmere’s City Council.”
Bartlett responded on April 8, enclosing correspondence between Voss and Chris Johnson, an attorney with the Kentucky League of Cities, which he directed Owen to after reminding her that she should not use her personal email address to discuss city business (the preceding emails had been sent from Owen’s personal address).
Citing case law, Johnson wrote, “There is no way around this, and the compensation must be taken, with the only alternative to donate back to the city, but as I said I do not think this will help your situation.”
On June 10–after the city had issued a check for Owen’s 2023 pay–Owen responded to Johnson.
“I am writing to share that I feel harassed and forced to take council pay that I was able to waive all of last year 2023,” Owen wrote, adding that many cities in the United States have instituted policies allowing elected officials to waive their pay.
“Last week during the Elsmere Caucus meeting, Attorney Voss physically stood over me as I was sitting in my seat and tried to force me to take pay that I have been waiving since last year as I have not received any money from the City of Elsmere,” Owen wrote later in the email. “I feel harassed and in an unsafe hostile environment.”
It was around this time, at the end of June, when Owen stopped going to meetings.
In a subsequent email on June 28, Owen wrote again that she felt “harassed and in an unsafe in [sic] a hostile environment, which is why I’ve missed some meetings.”
Johnson responded the same day.
“I am afraid that under Kentucky law, the pay set is what must be paid,” Johnson wrote. “There is no provision to waive the salary under ANY of the authorities I have previously stated to you, and others have stated to you as well. The only option available to you would be for the city to pass an ordinance stating the council position is unpaid.”
He concluded his email with, “You simply cannot refuse the pay. Period. Full stop.”
Morgain Patterson, the Kentucky League of Cities’ director of municipal law, chimed in as well.
“Please note that everyone in the KLC Department of Municipal Law has been very clear that there is no legal mechanism for a council member to waive pay,” Patterson wrote. “The IRS guidelines require the cities to provide a W-2 to paid employees, which include elected city officials. I’m aware of all communications with this department, including Chris Johnson and he has been nothing but honest in trying to assist you.”
Owen responded to Patterson later that day, digging in and asking Patterson for advice on how she could waive her pay.
“I wish to void the w2, [sic] because I communicated and was clear when I was elected that I did not want to receive any pay. How can I void the w2 [sic] please?” Owen asked. “The situation has become very stressful for me and my family. How can this issue be resolved without harming me or my family?”
Patterson doubled down in her response on July 9.
“I cannot state it more plainly,” Patterson said in that email. “I hate that this will have a negative impact on you.”
Owen responded later in the day, reiterating her stance that she had willingly waived her pay.
“The current unwillingness to help me and instead harm me and my family feels hostile and is very stressful and concerning,” Owen wrote. In the same email, she asked Mayor Marty Lenhof to “waive” her W-2.
Bartlett sent an email on July 12 explaining the process by which the city began issuing checks to Owen.
“Shortly after I was hired, I was told that you did not cash that check [from May] so I suggested that we stop payment on that to prevent any fraudulent activity in case it did not reach its intended recipient,” Barlett wrote. “I was not informed of the [October] letter that you provided to City staff. Moreover, I was not aware of any request to waive your salary until it was raised earlier this calendar year at the February meeting. Since then, City staff has been trying to fulfill our obligations to follow the law as it is currently written and deliver all salary that is owed to you.”
He references an email Owen had sent to Patterson at an earlier date, affirming his argument that Owen could not, under the law, refuse to get paid.
“Your statement to Ms. Patterson below that, ‘The City of Elsmere waived my council meeting stipend/pay…’ is incorrect,” Bartlett wrote. “City administration, under the Executive Authority of the City of Elsmere, has no discretion or ability to waive your payment.”
Owen dug in even deeper in an Aug. 6 email.
“I don’t know Ms. Patterson or Mr. Johnson, but I am also concerned that they joined in attacking me and my family,” Owen wrote. “I am concerned that you all have ignored my requests for help and a solution so that me and my family are not harmed as there is literally no that says, [sic] a Councilmember [sic] cannot waive the council stipend/pay and the City of Elsmere waived my stipend ALL of last year with a simple letter they told me to write last year, and I complied.”
Later in the email, Owen wrote that all parties involved had it out for her.
“That is egregious, hateful and intentionally harmful to me as an elected official and may [sic] family as residents of the City of Elsmere,” Owen writes, “Your hate, lies and harmful actions including having the Elsmere City Attorney physically stand over me and try to force me to take pay during our City meetings have created a hostile environment for me to serve on Elsmere’s City Council. Please cease and desist as I am very stressed, and I feel attacked and harassed.”
At the end of August, Bunzow called out Owen’s lack of attendance on social media. Owen responded, characterizing his posts as dishonest, which prompted Bunzow to make a complaint with the Kentucky League of Cities. Bunzow also made a records request with the city for posts on a Facebook page bearing the council woman’s name in effort to prove she’d been blocking critical voices on social media.
In a social post to Bunzow, Owen stated the reason she had missed meetings was due to illness, although she did not give details. Bunzow, Owen and others traded barbs on Facebook and in emails in the months leading up to the election.
Bunzow is a frequent attendee of council meetings. Since he works with the Board of Elections, he’s not allowed to run for office. Yet, others, including candidate Rusty Smith III, who lost in the 2024 election, and Andrew Myatt, who ran as a write-in candidate but lost, have also expressed frustration to the council about Owen’s absence.
Smith told LINK nky that he plans to publicly call for Owen’s removal from the council in January, when her new term starts, if she continues to miss meetings. He cited a city ordinance that says a council member can be removed from their office with a unanimous vote from the other members upon demonstrating “misconduct, inability, or willful neglect in the performance of the duties of his office.”
Since September, Owen has asked the council and city government to allow her to attend meetings virtually, expressing she feels unsafe with people–including Bunzow–carrying guns into the council chambers.
Bunzow told LINK nky that he carries an unloaded gun with him in the council chambers. Police Chief Russell Wood confirmed that he’d examined the gun, that it was unloaded, and that he allowed Bunzow into the building with it. Carrying a concealed weapon is legal under Kentucky state law, even in government buildings (although local governments can pass ordinances limiting them in government buildings, even if they can’t charge someone with a crime for bringing one in ).
Council members and city staff discussed the possibility of virtual meetings at the council meeting on Oct. 1, which Owen did not attend. City Clerk Katie Hehman said that setting up virtual meetings may be technologically difficult to manage.
Councilmember Joanne Barnett-Smith, who won her reelection bid earlier this month, did not find Owen’s concerns about safety convincing.
“I can say that at every meeting, our chief [of police] is here,” Barnett-Smith said. “He’s an armed person here to protect everyone that’s in this building and to protect the council. So I’m not sure about the idea of not feeling safe because, like I said, we do have our chief here.”
Smith and Barnett-Smith both pointed out that in Kentucky, one was liable to encounter a gun anywhere.
“There’s people in our churches who’s carrying guns and stuff,” Barnett-Smith said.
“I just don’t understand how she’s going to all these other meetings not knowing who’s carrying,” Smith told LINK nky in a phone call, referring to other community events Owen attended recently.
Larry Owen, Serena Owen’s husband, had been sitting in the audience at the Oct. 1 meeting. Midway through Barnett-Smith’s comments, he spoke up.
“All I’m saying is you are not the one that’s being threatened,” Larry Owen said. “You’re not the one on social media being attacked. I’m saying this from a husband’s point of view because I’m pretty sure if it was you being attacked, your husband would be sitting right here. I’m pretty sure he would be upset. He would be outraged now.”
Larry Owen went on.
“On that social media, these people have said that they have boasted that they carry all the time,” Larry Owen said. “She doesn’t carry. She doesn’t carry. There’s no reason to carry. I don’t care about people’s Second Amendment. All I care about is my wife. She doesn’t feel safe. That’s her. That’s her. You might feel safe because you’re not the one being threatened.”
But, Chief Wood said, there wasn’t much to be done.
“We’ve gotten some [Attorney General] legal opinions,” Wood said, “and if the council were to do any kind of regulations trying to limit concealment within our government buildings, there’s no penalty for that. So, if my officers come and say, ‘Hey, there’s no crime, there’s no violation,’ we kinda look like we got egg on our face, you know? We can just ask them to leave and they say, ‘no,’ there’s no penalty. I can’t arrest them.”
Owen has been communicating mostly through email with LINK nky as the situation has developed. LINK sent her a series of questions, asking about her views on Bunzow and her other critics’ motivations, what she plans to do about her pay, and the issues arising from her lack of attendance at meetings.
Owen sent a long response.
“I am a peaceful, loving leader, and Missionary [sic] who has faithfully helped and served our NKY communities for over 30yrs [sic],” Owen wrote. “As a former Middle School and Adult Education Teacher, I tried to reason with and informed Mr. Bunzow that I have never received pay from the City of Elsmere. I also apologized if he felt I ever offended him, I expressed safety concerns…, and I asked him to cease and desist sharing false information about me receiving pay when I did not; however, he still attacked me on my peaceful Facebook posts and posted dishonest statements telling people I received pay when I have never received pay from the City of Elsmere.”
Owen continues, expressing frustration that the current council and mayor have not attempted to meet her halfway on the issue.
“Kentucky state law and our City ordinance allows the City of Elsmere to create an ordinance which will allow Councilmembers to waive pay; however, in spite of me requesting the ordinance during multiple Caucus and City Council meetings earlier this year…, our Elsmere Mayor Lenhof never put it on a meeting agenda so the issue could be resolved,” Owen wrote. “Last year, I followed the instructions of our Elsmere City Treasurer Jessica Lucas and former City Clerk to write a letter waiving any/all pay for my term and it was honored all last year January 2023 until May of this year 2024. I went to the IRS who showed and provided me with documentation that I never received any pay from the City of Elsmere in 2023. Beginning in May of 2024, Mayor Lenhof authorized the City of Elsmere to write voided checks that I never received to harm me and my family after we already filed taxes, instead of creating an ordinance to help me or any councilperson waive pay.”
Finally, she discussed her views on guns in the council chambers.
“I respect and support people and their 2nd Amendment rights; however, out of concern for everyone’s safety (including those who don’t carry guns), [emphasis hers] I believe no one, other than our Police Officers, should have guns in our city buildings & inside Council Chambers,” Owen writes. “For many months I have expressed concerns to my Elsmere Mayor Lenhof and the past few months to the council about feeling like I’m in a hostile environment and not feeling safe knowing that people can bring guns into our council meetings.”
She concludes her email discussing what she perceives are the mayor’s motivations.
“I also have an open records request at the KY State level, that will show that Elsmere Mayor Lenhof has been targeting and attacking since I was elected as the first African American female Councilwoman,” Owen wrote.
LINK nky sent a response email asking Owen if she would be willing to share the results of her records requests. She has not yet responded to the query about the records requests, but she did send an email to city staff on Nov. 23, challenging Hehman’s assertion that virtual meetings were unfeasible.
She wrote that she had spoken with the director of the Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky, or TBNK, the public access telecaster that records the council’s regular meetings. She said he told her that TBNK had the capacity to move everyone onto virtual meetings or, alternatively, could Zoom her into the meeting on a laptop, which could then be placed next to a microphone, allowing her to participate and cast votes.
The next meeting of the Elsmere City Council is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 3. LINK nky will report more on this situation as it develops.
Mildred Nguyen contributed reporting to this story.