Boyle was elected Mayor of Omaha in 1981 and re-elected in 1985. In October 1986, a recall campaign was initiated against Boyle after a controversial dismissal of the Omaha Chief of Police. In October 1985, Police Lt. 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 him on suspicion of drunken driving. This was meant to provide an opportunity for Boyle to interfere with the criminal justice process. The arrest 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. Wadman refused Lant's orders to co-sign the disciplinary notices based on Wadman's personal beliefs and the results of polygraph examinations of the officers. Lant personally issued the notices against the officers and recommended the dismissal of Wadman for insubordination. The Personnel Board of the City of Omaha, a citizen-panel, 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 to the Supreme Court of Nebraska which reversed the District Court's decision and found the Personnel Board's dismissal order 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. The recall election was held in January 1987, and drew 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, finishing first out of a field of six in the primary, though he lost to P.J. Morgan, a former State Senator. In 1990, Boyle ran for Governor. He lost the Democratic Primary by less than one vote per precinct Statewide. Ben Nelson was nominated; served two terms as Governor before being elected a United States senator. Boyle has served on the Douglas County Board of Commissioners since 1997. Boyle was appointed to the Douglas County Board of Commissioners after Bernice Labedz resigned for health reasons.
