Participating in his first city council meeting since being arrested twice on misdemeanor shoplifting charges, Huntsville Councilman Devyn Keith was removed from chair of the council’s finance committee and denied his request to travel to Washington next month with the local chamber of commerce.

Keith said he believed both actions were a result of the four charges he is facing and that he is being treated differently than past council members who have been criminally charged. Keith’s initial court appearance is scheduled for March 15.

“I have not even gone to court,” Keith said after the meeting. “I pled not guilty. And I am being excommunicated.”

Council President John Meredith announced at Thursday’s meeting that he was removing Keith as finance chair and replacing him with Councilwoman Jennie Robinson. After the meeting, Meredith declined to comment on his decision to remove Keith as chair.

“I can’t, because as I said (during the meeting), I don’t want to wind up under someone’s subpoena and have to be brought into that scenario,” Meredith said.

Asked if it was because Keith is facing charges, Meredith said, “No comment on that.”

After the meeting, Keith said, “I have been finance committee chair for four of my six years (on the council). I have asked personally for people to give me reasoning and was not given it on the floor (during the meeting). And I have full respect. But all I say is, I do get a day in court. Most decisions from Congress to the president are held after they’ve been in court.”

On the trip to Washington, Keith was among three council members requesting $2,100 each to join the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce on its annual “fly-in” for two days of meetings and interactions with members of Congress, NASA, military leaders and other federal officials.

The council unanimously approved funding for the trip for Councilmen Bill Kling and David Little. When Keith made the motion for his funding to be approved, no council member seconded the motion – which means the motion dies. As Meredith again asked if there was a second, Robinson said, “I cannot second because he has exceeded his travel budget.”

Keith said not receiving the courtesy of a second so the issue could be discussed was “disrespectful.” He said after the meeting that he intended to cover any overages on the trip with his personal money.

Robinson said did not have enough money remaining in his $4,000 travel budget to cover the trip. Keith took exception to Robinson’s perspective, saying that twice in the six years he has been on the council, accommodations have been made for council members to travel even if their travel budget did not have enough money.

Robinson said both Kling and Little had enough money in their travel budgets to cover the trip. Robinson said that while Keith raised the concern during the meeting that the travel budgets were insufficient given that they were set more than 20 years ago, he has never proposed increasing those budgets.

“This has never been an issue until recent times,” Keith said during the meeting. “And that respectfully, as I stated before, the colleague that spoke earlier about budget (Robinson) has approved twice any change in budget (for a council member’s travel). But it is again, understandable that in the public opinion, it is easy to be guilty before proven innocent. And it’s unfortunate that my colleagues are trending toward that perspective.”

Meredith responded, “This, in my opinion, has nothing to do with an ongoing situation. This has to do with being over budget.” Meredith also repeated his earlier suggestion that Keith take money from his district fund and apply that to his travel budget to cover any shortfall – an option Keith said after the meeting he would not take.

Asked about Keith’s statement that her opposition was due to his criminal case rather than the budget, Robinson said, “This was just fiscal responsibility. We had a fiscal review tonight. We hold our department heads to a standard and I don’t think we should deviate from that. We need to be as responsible as our department heads on budgets, particularly because we vote on the budget.”

Keith was arrested Feb. 2 and charged with one count of fourth-degree shoplifting at the Walmart on University Drive in west Huntsville. On Feb. 8, Keith turned himself in to police after additional arrest warrants were issued stemming from other shoplifting cases.

He has been charged with four counts of shoplifting with the merchandise totaling $491.13, according to charging documents. Keith is charged with shoplifting at three different Walmart stores in Huntsville.

Keith attended the Feb. 9 city council meeting, receiving approval from the council to address his situation at the outset of the meeting. He spoke for a little more than four minutes, offering multiple apologies and promising to be “a better man” going forward.

“What you are looking at is the maturing of a man, a tough moment I cannot explain to you,” Keith said that night.

After speaking, Keith left the meeting before the council conducted any business. And after taking part in his first meeting since the arrests, Keith said he believed he was being presumed guilty until proven innocent.

“I think it is unfortunate that I am being treated as if decisions have been made that I’m unaware of,” he said after the meeting. “I am still a council member. As I said before, other council members before me have had issues and still performed their duties and gone on to perform their duties for multiple years. I have never not received the chance to voice my opinion and perspective. And to not be afforded that is an unfortunate place, but I fully accept that some people would rather decide someone is guilty and wait for their innocence.”