Opinion ID: 532642
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Determination of Actions Violative of Clearly Established Law

Text: 41 Having concluded that the Ashburn Code was clearly established, we must determine if a genuine issue of material fact exists as to whether or not defendants-appellants' action violated any of Hudgins' statutory or constitutional rights which a reasonable city-council member would have known. 19 See Harlow, 457 U.S. at 818, 102 S.Ct. at 2738; Harrell v. United States, 875 F.2d 828, 830-31 (11th Cir.1989); Rich, 841 F.2d at 1563-64. As defendants-appellants have stated in individual affidavits, their vote on January 2, 1986, for the city clerk was pursuant to the Ashburn Code Sec. 4.1, which directs the city council at their first regular meeting of the year to elect the city clerk as well as other city officers and department heads for a one-year term. We can find no fault or irregularity with the legislative action of voting for city clerk on January 2, 1986, by the Ashburn city council generally or by defendants-appellants specifically. 20 Therefore, we hold that defendants-appellants' electing McLeod as city clerk for 1986 did not violate Hudgins' statutory rights under the Ashburn Code. 42 Having found that defendants-appellants' legislative action of voting not to re-elect plaintiff-appellee as city clerk for 1986 violated no statutory rights of Hudgins under the clearly established Ashburn Code, we also have performed the constitutional analysis. We have determined that the 1983 Ashburn Code affords Hudgins no right to continued employment as Ashburn city clerk. 21 Furthermore, we have concluded that the 1982 Plan, from which she claims a property interest in her continued employment, was not effective on January 2, 1986, and, accordingly, that it is inapplicable to her. Therefore, Hudgins has no ascertainable Fourteenth Amendment property interest in her continued employment as city clerk, and it was neither unconstitutional for defendants-appellants, as city-council members, not to re-elect her as city clerk for 1986, nor for the city council not to give her procedural due process of notice and a hearing. 22