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A court ruling earlier Tuesday said he could reclaim the director's seat he had been illegally removed from in 2009, but Lee said he refused to sit at the board table until being told he could.

That came at 7 p.m., just before the meeting began.

"I want everything to be pretty uneventful," Lee said before the meeting, unable to wipe the smile from his face.

In July 2009, just three months after Lee had been elected to his third six-year term, the two other board members told Lee to vacate his seat or be physically removed.

An appeals court ruling handed down earlier Tuesday said the removal process had been unlawful.

Lee's ouster sparked a string of dramatic events in the Northeast Ambulance & Fire Protection District in north St. Louis County. Among them: failed attempts by the previous board leadership to leave with several hundred thousand dollars in severance and legal fees; the removal of another director a judge ruled had "intentionally and flagrantly abused his power;" and nearly 16 months of court-ordered financial oversight of the district that ended last month.

Next week may bring even more fallout as district residents vote to fill all three of the fire board's seats, including Lee's. That seat was placed on the ballot because Lee's case was undecided — and the winner still may choose to battle for the seat in court.

At least one of those running, Clarence E. "Jim" Young of Pasadena, voiced his pleasure with seeing Lee back at the director's table. He suggested that he would not challenge Lee's reinstatement if he won the next election.

It may not matter, said board attorney Anthony Gray, who received unofficial word from the county's board of elections that because of Lee's return, the winner of the election would not take office.

Lee, a 12-year veteran of the three-person board before his ouster, had been the odd man out, consistently voting against the other two directors and criticizing them and then-board attorney Elbert Walton Jr. for failing to follow the Sunshine Law. Neither of those directors — Joseph L. Washington or Robert Edwards — is on the board now, and Walton no longer represents Northeast.

Tuesday night, Lee met with no such resistance from the board's attorney or two newer members of the board. All three — attorney Gray and directors Mays and Bridget Quinlisk-Dailey — said they thought the court's decision to reinstate Lee was clear.

The third board member, Rhea Willis, however, cried foul. Willis, whom Washington and Edwards had named as Lee's replacement, was due to hold the seat for only about two more weeks because she chose not to run for a seat in next week's election. Still, the court's decision angered her.

In an emailed statement, Willis blasted the appeals court's ruling, which she said ignored how the fire board gave authority and disregarded a lower court ruling.

"The Court of Appeals completely threw out the fact that the Northeast fire board was aware and did not take any actions to stop the attorneys to do what they were doing on the behalf of the Northeast fire board," Willis' email stated. "I expect that (St. Louis County Prosecutor) Bob McCulloch will remove Bob Lee because Bob Lee has violated the Missouri State Law."

Willis' argument points to a 1991 state law Washington and Edwards cited in Lee's ouster. That statute essentially says that fire district directors in St. Louis County may not be employed by the state or certain political subdivisions.

Shortly before Lee's ouster, he took a job with the Missouri Career Center, which is run by the county. Lee's attorney, Neil Bruntrager, has argued that since Lee's salary is paid with federal funds, he is not a county employee. Bruntrager also argues that the law is unconstitutional in that it singles out fire district directors in St. Louis County alone.

The issue of whether Lee is in violation of that law and should forfeit his job remains unanswered, however, as Tuesday's appeals court decision focused on issues unrelated to the statute. The appeals court ruled that a suit that had been brought against Lee to prevent him from retaking his seat be dismissed based on the fact that the Northeast board never authorized it.

"Lee presented uncontroverted evidence in the form of testimony of two of the board's directors ... that the board had not contracted with any attorney, never authorized or passed a resolution to institute a suit for removal of Lee, and never agreed to authorize attorney Rufus Tate Jr. to bring such a suit," the appeals court ruling said.

Tate is Northeast's 'special counsel."

Willis, who also attended Tuesday night's meeting, asked whether Lee planned to step down from his job with the county. She also asked Mays and Quinlisk-Dailey what they thought of the situation.

"I want to see it through to its conclusion because we've brought it this far," Lee said. "We owe that to the citizens. There's a statute out there right now that says maybe I shouldn't be in this seat, and we're going to get that resolved."

Before that happens, however, comes next week's election, which has produced 11 candidates for the three seats listed on the ballot. Seeking Lee's seat, a four-year term, are Young, Lona J. Moore of Northwoods, and Bertha M. Myers of Bel-Nor.

Normally, only one of the fire board's seats is up for election every two years. This year, though, all three are open because of departures and ousters.

Joe Donahue, the county Election Board's Democratic director, said that even with the court ruling in Lee's favor, the election will be run, and the winners certified, as planned. If the winner challenges that he or she should have the seat over Lee, Donahue said, "it'll probably have to go to court again."