CH2MHill Withholds Nine Email Strings Despite Judgment Ordering Their Release

CENTRAL — CH2MHill has withheld a number of emails from the Central City News, despite an order by District Judge Kay Bates.

During the discovery process in the case of Community Press, LLC vs CH2MHill, the Central City News learned of the existence of 63 emails responsive to its public records request. Pursuant to the judgment in the case, CH2MHill turned over to the newspaper 54 emails but withheld nine other email strings. CH2MHill admitted these were responsive to the Public Records request but said they are subject to attorney/client privilege.

The Central City News objects to the failure of CH2MHill to release those documents, because the newspaper says they are not subject to the attorney/client privilege.

Five of the email strings are from one CH2MHill employee to eight other employees on March 31, 2010.  One of the recipients of the email was an in-house attorney for CH2MHill, and the others were not attorneys.  The Central City News maintains that when an email is distributed to non-attorneys, it is not subject to the attorney/client privilege.  The other four email strings were from one CH2MHill employee to another on April 5, 2010, and April 13, 2010.  Since neither the sender nor the recipient of the emails was an attorney, the Central City News maintains there is no attorney/client attached to those emails.  Two of the missing email strings are from Tommy Higgs, in which he discussed the Public Records requests.

Without these emails, it is impossible for the public to have a true picture of how a political flyer was distributed in the name of the City of Central one day before the municipal elections on March 27, 2010.

Here is background on the case:

On Friday, March 26, 2010, one day before Central’s municipal elections, a flyer identified as from the “City of Central” appeared in copies of the Baton Rouge Advocate distributed in and around Central.

The flyer, entitled “Setting the Record Straight on Permit Fees,” was a response to an ad run the previous week by mayoral candidate Jr. Shelton. Shelton was challenging incumbent Mayor Mac Watts, a supporter of CH2MHill, the $6 billion international company that administered the City of Central, Louisiana’s first and only privatized municipality.  CH2MHill received about 80 percent of the revenues of the City of Central.

Two days after the election, the Central City News inquired of Mayor Mac Watts whether he had authorized the political flyer.  His spokesman said the mayor did not authorize it or even know about it in advance.  The Central City News then contacted CH2MHill manager in Central, Tommy Higgs, who said the flyer was authorized and paid for by CH2MHill and that it was not authorized by the City of Central.  When asked why the flyer said it was from the “City of Central,” Higgs replied that “We are authorized to advertise in the name of the City of Central anytime we want to.”

The Central City News then made public records requests under the Louisiana Public Records Act for all records pertaining to the flyer.  The requests were made of the City of Central and of CH2MHill.  The City responded that it had no such records.  CH2MHill responded that it is not subject to the Public Records Act because it is not a “public body” under the law.

The Central City News maintained that CH2MHill was administering the City of Central as though it were the government and thus was subject to the Public Records law.  When CH2MHill refused to supply the documents requested, the Central City News filed suit against CH2MHill in the 19th Judicial District, seeking the records it had requested.

Under the Public Records law, the hearing on the matter was supposed to be held within 10 days, but District Judge Kay Bates did not schedule the matter until June 2010.  Central Mayor Mac Watts and CH2MHill manager Tommy Higgs were subpoenaed to testify.  On the Friday  before the Monday hearing, Judge Bates unilaterally postponed the hearing over the objections of the Central City News.  That weekend, Tommy Higgs fled the state, and CH2MHill has since claimed it does not know his whereabouts.

Instead of holding the hearing required under the Public Records law, Judge Bates in August 2010 dismissed the suit and ruled that CH2MHill was a private company not subject to the public records law.  The Central City News appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeal, which in 2011 ruled that the documents requested were indeed public records, provided that there was sufficient “connexity” between the City of Central and CH2MHill.

The Court of Appeal ordered Judge Bates to conduct a hearing to determine the degree of connexity between the two.  CH2MHill appealed the ruling to the Louisiana Supreme Court, which in 2012 upheld the Court of Appeal and ordered Judge Bates to conduct the hearing.

During 2013, the Central City News attempted to conduct discovery and gather testimony and documents from CH2MHill.  After a number of delays, the newspaper was able to schedule Mayor Mac Watts for the taking of a deposition under oath.  At that time, CH2MHill began serious talks on a settlement.  In late September, Judge Bates signed a judgment, which both parties agreed to.  Under the judgment, CH2MHill was to pay the newspaper’s attorney fees and turn over to the Central City News all of the documents it had requested under the Public Records law, except those subject to the attorney/client privilege.

Pursuant to the judgment, CH2MHill did pay the attorney fees and turned over to the newspaper 54 emails which had been subject to the Public Records request.
However, in the discovery process, the Central City News learned of nine other email strings, which CH2MHill admitted were responsive to the Public Records request but which it says are subject to attorney/client privilege.

The Central City News objects to the failure of CH2MHill to release those documents, because the newspaper says they are not subject to the attorney/client privilege.

Five of the email strings are from one CH2MHill employee to eight other employees on March 31, 2010.  One of the recipients of the email was an in-house attorney for CH2MHill, and the others were not attorneys.  The Central City News maintains that when an email is distributed to non-attorneys, it is not subject to the attorney/client privilege.  The other four email strings were from one CH2MHill employee to another on April 5, 2010, and April 13, 2010.  Since neither the sender nor the recipient of the emails was an attorney, the Central City News maintains there is no attorney/client attached to those emails.  Two of the missing email strings are from Tommy Higgs, in which he discussed the Public Records requests.

Without these emails, it is impossible for the public to have a true picture of how a political flyer was distributed in the name of the City of Central one day before the municipal elections on March 27, 2010.

By Woody Jenkins, Editor, Central City News