EVANSTON — Attorneys for Evanston Mayor Kent Williams and former city planner Paul Knopf will argue in a Denver appeals court Monday. The hearing comes nearly two years after Knopf was terminated after 31 years as a city employee.

The oral arguments follow a March ruling by a federal judge that would have allowed Knopf v. Williams to continue to trial. Defendants Williams and the City of Evanston appealed the judge’s ruling, and both sides will argue their cases beginning at 9 a.m. Monday in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

According to court documents, Williams, who’s being sued both as the mayor and as an individual, is challenging the March ruling, arguing that he should have qualified immunity in his individual capacity. 

Now, after months of back-and-forth, including lengthy depositions and court-ordered mediation, Cheyenne attorney Richard Rideout, representing Williams and the city, and Jackson attorney John Robinson, representing Knopf, will have their day in court. Evanston attorney Jim Phillips is also representing Knopf.

Knopf claims that the mayor violated his First Amendment rights when Knopf was fired the first week of January 2016. Williams claims he didn’t fire Knopf, but simply did not reappoint him as city planner.

Knopf said he was fired during a heated meeting with the mayor, in which Williams showed Knopf a printed email from Knopf to Evanston City Attorney Dennis Boal. Knopf said Williams had highlighted parts of the email that had made the mayor furious.

Knopf sent the email to Boal in October 2015, saying the longtime city planner might have to meet with the attorney if then-city engineer Brian Honey “continues to try to impede Brent’s (Sanders) authority as Project Engineer” for the Bear Meadows project. Sanders of Cook-Sanders was the project manager for the bulk of the project.

Sanders said he was pushed off the project after voicing several concerns, including problems with drainage and T-Bar Construction’s miscalculation of topsoil. Sanders wouldn’t approve a change order for extra topsoil, and he wouldn’t sign off on the project’s completion until the drainage problems, among other things, were fixed.

According to court documents, Mayor Williams gave Honey authority as project manager, which, in part, led Knopf to email the city attorney. Knopf told Boal that Honey and T-Bar Construction owner Curtis Rex were friends, and that might be clouding Honey’s judgment. Honey told the Herald in January 2016 that he and Rex have a working relationship, but nothing beyond that.

Knopf’s departure from the city upended many local groups, including the planning and zoning commission — each member of the board resigned in protest of Knopf’s termination. Even city council members were shaken by the mayor’s decision.

Councilman Andy Kopp told the Herald in January 2015 that he’d hoped there could be a way to bring Knopf back as planner.

“I think we’ve lost a valuable asset to the community,” Kopp said. “He (Knopf) markets the city better than anyone I know of.”

Kopp also defended the mayor shortly after Knopf’s departure, saying, “I believe Kent is a really fair man. Kent’s having a hard time with this; he’s human.”