Elsmere council woman resigns ahead of removal hearing. How did we get here?

Serena Owen, the Elsmere City Council member who hasn’t been present at a council meeting since June 2024, submitted a letter of resignation to the city Wednesday morning.

The letter, sent via email on June 4 at 5:56 a.m., says that she is resigning her position as city councilwoman, effective immediately.

“This decision has not been made lightly but is necessitated by the escalating challenges that have profoundly impacted my ability to serve effectively and safely,” Owen said in the letter.

The resignation arrived the morning of the same day the city council had scheduled a public hearing to determine if Owen was fit to continue holding office. The city confirmed that, in spite of Owen’s resignation, the hearing would continue as scheduled, beginning at 6 p.m. at the city building. City representatives declined to comment further. 

The city council voted to begin the process of removing Owen from office in March and brought formal charges of woeful neglect and misconduct against her in late April, stemming mostly from Owen’s absenteeism; she has not attended a council meeting since June of 2024. 

The path to Wednesday’s hearing is long and rife with confusion and mutual dislike. 

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 and garnered the second-highest vote count in the 2024 election.

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.

When Owen was first elected, she requested that her council member’s wages be waived and donated to a charitable organization. Owen sent a letter to the city staff in October of last year, requesting that her pay be 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.

Emails obtained through public records requests show a long and at times tense exchange between Owen, city officials and attorneys (from both the city and other organizations) attempting to convince Owen that she could not legally waive her pay in the absence of a city ordinance allowing her to do so. Throughout the conversations, Owen repeatedly doubled down on her desire to waive her pay. City records indicate that the city has been issuing Owen checks, but she has not been cashing them. 

The email exchanges began in March 2024. On June 10 after months of seemingly fruitless conversations between Owen and other parties, Owen wrote, “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,” 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, [Elsmere City Attorney Greg 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.

Owen began taking flak over her absenteeism in August, most notably from Elsmere resident and employee with the Kenton County Clerk’s office, Eric Bunzow. Bunzow called out Owen’s lack of attendance on Facebook. 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.

Owen has repeatedly stated that she felt unsafe attending council meetings, pointing to the fact that Bunzow carries a gun with him. 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 ). 

Bunzow has denied making direct threats against Owen’s safety, but Owen has sought accommodations from the council in an effort to allow her to attend the meetings virtually. Owen, who has autism, argued that such accommodations were required under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but her requests for accommodations have proven unpopular among the other elected officials. 

The council unanimously voted against providing teleconferencing services for Owen in January. The city has also offered various safety measures to Owen, including protective plexiglass around her seat in the Council Chamber, a bulletproof vest and police escort between her car and the chamber. At the March 4 caucus meeting, Mayor Marty Lenhof informed the council that the protective glass option would cost $17,000.

“You should be here serving the public for the public if you’re elected by the people, and you’re not serving them very well virtually,” said Justin Wade, who joined the city council this year. 

Owen has sought out support among the public to bolster her case in the form of a petition for hybrid virtual meetings, which had garnered 266 signatures at the time of this article’s publication. Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a well-known progressive advocacy organization, also wrote a letter in support of Owen’s request for accommodations. 

Serena Owen did not attend the normal council meeting on Tuesday, but her husband, Larry Owen did, reading a statement she had prepared. Larry Owen has spoken out in support of his wife before, and Serena Owen’s statement characterizes the council’s actions as hypocritical.

“The council rejected $17,000 bulletproof glass on the council dais suggested by our police chief, but the Elsmere City Council spent $12,000 on efforts to remove [Serena Owen],” Larry Owen read. Serena Owen’s statement concludes by again asking the council to consider accommodations, as well the installation of security cameras in the council chambers and the conference room where closed sessions are held. 

Serena Owen sent her letter of resignation around 6 a.m. on Wednesday. 

“While I cherish the opportunity to continue my 30 years of service to the Elsmere community and advocate for positive change, the harmful hostile hate-filled environment created within the council has rendered it impossible for me to continue,” Serena Owen’s letter reads. “I must prioritize my safety and well-being for the sake of myself, my family and our community.”

In her letter Serena Owen suggested implementing several changes for the city, such as passing an ordinance allowing council members to waive their pay and ensuring hybrid meetings when council members request them. 

In spite of Owen tendering her resignation, the city council met very briefly Wednesday night at the hearing’s scheduled time. You can read LINK nky’s coverage of the meeting here.

Mildred Nguyen contributed reporting to this story.