Mayor Watts Suspends Work of Legal Services Committee

April 17, 2011 0 Comments

Document is example of “redacted” legal bill from City Attorney Sheri Morris, showing dates, hours, and charges but not what work was done.

CENTRAL — On Wednesday, Central Mayor Mac Watts suspended further work by the Mayor’s Committee on Legal Services. He issued a statement, saying the committee chaired by Councilman Tony LoBue “was formed to study the advantages, disadvantages and costs associated with hiring a full time City Attorney versus the current process of contracting with law firms. Due to the legal issues which have been raised about this committee’s activities in local print and internet media, I am temporarily suspending the activities of this committee. Once all legal issues are resolved, I will likely request this committee to resume its research.”

Last Thursday, Watts sent a letter to LoBue, demanding that he immediately resign as chairman of the committee and keep quiet about it.

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On Saturday the Central City News filed the following report:

In a letter obtained by the Central City News, Watts told LoBue, “I am asking for your immediate resignation by email.” He also said he wanted LoBue to “graciously resign without any fan-fare or undue publicity.” To read Watts’ letter calling on LoBue to resign, CLICK ON Mayor_letter_attorney_committee. [To read letter from Watts on Wednesday, saying that he is suspending activities of Committee on Legal Services, CLICK ON Mayor Watts’ Letter to editors 4-20-11]

LoBue has been critical of the high cost of legal services for the City of Central and the difficulty of obtaining billing records from the City Attorney, Sheri Morris, who was appointed by Watts.

The Central City News revealed last year that Morris’ firm was paid $656,000 from 2007 to August 2010 by the City of Central, Central Community School Board, and the Central Transition District. Since August, her firm has received another estimated $100,000. Morris recently resigned as legal counsel for the Central Community School System.

Morris had been attorney for Russell Starns during the campaign to incorporate the City of Central. After the successful incorporation vote, she was appointed as City Attorney by Watts in July 2005. In July 2010, she was reappointed by Watts, but the City Council rejected her nomination on a 3-2 vote. LoBue spoke against her renomination. However, the Council allowed her to stay on while the Mayor considered other candidates. The mayor resubmitted her nomination as City Attorney in November, and she was confirmed on a 3-2 vote.

On July 28, 2010, Central resident Mike Mannino made a Public Records Request to examine City Attorney Sheri Morris’ legal bills to the City of Central. However, more than a week later, she provided only “redacted,” or blackened out, versions of the bills, which hid from view almost everything in the bills except the dollar amount. As a result, on Aug. 10, 2010, the City Council directed her to provide clean or “unredacted” copies of the bills.

At the Aug. 24, 2010, meeting of the City Council, the Council considered but did not adopt Resolution 2010-22 by Councilman Louis DeJohn authorizing Watts to turn over Morris’ billing records to Steven Stockstill to review without charge and determine whether the records should be unredacted and released to the public. The minutes of the meeting provide, “After discussion it was determined that Resolution 2010-22 was never adopted.”

Nevertheless, at the meeting, Stockstill reported to the Council that he had reviewed the bills and there was no basis for them to be redacted or withheld. Stockstill said they should have been provided immediately when the Public Records request was made.

Although Louisiana’s Public Records Act requires that public records be provided immediately or within no longer than 72 hours, the City of Central took nearly a month to provide Morris’ unredacted legal bills to Mannino.

Several weeks ago, Watts announced he was creating a seven-member Committee on Legal Services to study legal services provided to the City of Central. He asked LoBue to serve as committee chairman.

The first meeting of the committee was on Monday. At that meeting, Councilman LoBue brought copies of the legal bills which had been submitted by Morris from July 2010 to February 2011 for the committee members to review. He told the Central City News that it was essential for committee members to see what the City is being charged in order to make recommendations on how legal services should be provided to the City.

The City Council met Tuesday night but Watts made no mention of the Committee on Legal Services.

On Thursday morning, a front-page editorial entitled “Confidential City Records Released without Approval: Just the Facts” appeared in this week’s edition of Central Speaks newspaper. It chastised LoBue for failing to “keep certain entries in legal invoices confidential and not release them to the public.”

The Central Speaks article appeared on Thursday morning, and on Thursday afternoon Watts sent the letter to LoBue demanding that he resign from the committee and the chairmanship.

In an email to Committee members on Friday, LoBue asked for their opinion on whether he had done anything wrong and whether he should resign as chairman.

It is unclear what law Central Speaks believes Councilman LoBue violated. There is no Louisiana law prohibiting the release of public records. On the contrary, Louisiana’s Public Records Law provides that all public documents are subject to being examined at any time by any person. The law provides several exceptions to what is a public record, but there is no exception for billing records of attorneys or other contractors.

Central Speaks said LoBue acted “against the unanimous vote of the City Council and against the advice of legal counsel,” but no action by the City Council could supersede Louisiana’s Public Records Law.

Watts said he is asking LoBue to resign for several reasons, including

• Releasing unredacted legal billing records of the city’s legal counsel

• The release was not approved by the Mayor or the City Council

• The billing invoices say they are confidential

• LoBue made public comments that the City should end its practice of paying hourly fees to legal counsel

• The action has placed the City and possibly Councilman LoBue open to a “serious lawsuit”

Last August, Watts released unredacted copies of Morris billing records to local attorney Steven Stockstill to review without any grant of approval from the City Council.

Watts said in his letter to LoBue that Mayor Pro-Tem Ralph Washington will replace LoBue as chairman of the Mayor’s Committee on Legal Services. However, on Saturday, Washington said he has no intention of taking over as chairman of the committee. “I don’t intend to accept any position which can be appointed and then replaced by the Mayor. What happened to Councilman LoBue could happen to any Councilman. I’m an elected official, elected by the people, and I do not intend to serve in a position where I could be removed by the Mayor,” Washington said.

The Louisiana Public Records Law provides in R.S. 44:31(A)(3) that “The burden of proving that a public record is not subject to inspection, copying, or reproduction shall rest with the custodian.”

Under that provision of the Public Records Law, the City of Central has the burden of proving that vendor billing records are not subject to inspection, copying, and reproduction.

By Woody Jenkins, Editor, Central City News