Michael David Boyle (January 19, 1944 – September 10, 2021) was an American Democratic politician from

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

who served as mayor of

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

and later as a member of the Douglas County Board of Commissioners. He was a lawyer in private practice in Omaha for over 30 years.

Biography

Educated in

Catholic schools Catholic schools are parochial pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school system. In 201 ...

in Omaha, Boyle graduated from

Creighton University Creighton University () is a private research university in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1878, the university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2015 the university enrolled 8,393 graduate ...

in 1973 with a degree in economics and management from the Business Administration School. He graduated from the Creighton University School of Law in 1977. Mike married Anne Howell on April 24, 1965, at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha. They had five children and 18 grandchildren. Anne Boyle was the first woman elected in the 130-year history of the

Nebraska Public Service Commission The Nebraska Public Service Commission regulates railroads, household goods and passenger carriers, telephone companies, grain warehouses and construction of manufactured housing. History The first iteration of the Public Service Commission was ...

. She was re-elected in 2008, and was a former chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party. She led the Bill Clinton for President campaign in Nebraska and the re-election campaign as well. Anne Boyle died in 2019 after suffering a stroke.

Political career

Boyle was elected

mayor of Omaha This is a list of mayors of Omaha, Nebraska, United States. List of mayors See also * Government of Omaha * History of Omaha References

{{Omaha Lists of mayors of places in Nebraska, Omaha Mayors of Omaha, Nebraska, * Omaha, Nebrask ...

in 1981 and re-elected in 1985. In October 1986, a

recall Recall may refer to: * Recall (baseball), a baseball term * Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop * Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure * ReCALL (journal), ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted langua ...

campaign was initiated against Boyle after a controversial dismissal of the Omaha Chief of Police. In October 1985, police lieutenant Tony Infantino wrote a memo titled "Mission Impossible," describing a plan to target and surveil the mayor's brother-in-law, John Howell, and attempt to

arrest An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be question ...

him on suspicion of

drunken driving Drunk driving (or drink-driving in British English) is the act of driving under the influence of alcohol. A small increase in the blood alcohol content increases the relative risk of a motor vehicle crash. In the United States, alcohol is in ...

. This was meant to provide an opportunity for Boyle to interfere with the criminal justice process. The arrest of the mayor's brother-in-law was carried out, and an investigation by Omaha Public Safety Director Keith Lant followed. Lant held that there was both an improper plot and subsequent cover-up, and demanded that Omaha Chief of Police Robert C. Wadman discipline the involved officers. Chief Wadman refused Lant's orders to co-sign the disciplinary notices based on his personal beliefs, despite the results of polygraph examinations of the command officers. Lant proceeded to personally issue the disciplinary notices against the officers, and recommended the dismissal of Wadman for insubordination. The Personnel Board of the City of Omaha, a panel of citizens, unanimously approved Lant's disciplinary notices and Wadman's dismissal. The Douglas County District Court upheld the disciplinary notices, but overturned Wadman's dismissal by the Personnel Board. The overturned dismissal was appealed by a citizen to the Supreme Court of Nebraska, which reversed the District Court's decision and found the Personnel Board's order to dismiss Robert Wadman to be legal. Supporters of the recall effort obtained 34,816 signatures on recall petitions, significantly more than the 19,669 signatures needed to force a

recall election A recall election (also called a recall referendum, recall petition or representative recall) is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office through a referendum before that official's term of office has ended. Recalls ...

. The recall election was held in January 1987, and drew an exceptionally large turnout of over 98,000 voters, 56.4 percent of those registered. Boyle was removed from office as a result of the election, in which the vote was 56 percent for his recall and 44 percent for his retention. In 1989, Boyle ran for re-election as mayor. He finished first out of a field of six in the primary, though he lost to P.J. Morgan, a former State Senator, in the general election. In 1990, Boyle ran for governor. He lost the Democratic primary by less than one vote per precinct Statewide.

Ben Nelson Earl Benjamin Nelson (born May 17, 1941) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who served as the 37th governor of Nebraska from 1991 to 1999 and as a United States Senator from Nebraska from 2001 to 2013. He is a member of the D ...

was nominated and served two terms as governor before being elected a United States senator. In 1997, Boyle was appointed to the Douglas County Board of Commissioners after Bernice Labedz resigned for health reasons, serving until his death in 2021. In March 2021, Boyle was diagnosed with lung cancer and began treatment. On September 2, 2021, he suffered complications of

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

that required him to be hospitalized. He died on September 10, 2021, at the age of 77.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyle, Mike 1944 births 2021 deaths 20th-century mayors of places in Nebraska Catholics from Nebraska Creighton University alumni Creighton University School of Law alumni Mayors of Omaha, Nebraska County supervisors and commissioners in Nebraska Nebraska Democrats Nebraska lawyers Recalled American mayors