Confidential City Records Released without Approval: Just the Facts

By Dave Freneaux

   In November and December Central’s City Council voted unanimously to protect the legal interests of the city.  The vote was to keep certain entries in legal invoices confidential and not release them to the public.  Against the unanimous vote of the City Council and against advice of legal counsel, Council Member Tony LoBue handed these records, unredacted, to six private citizens at a committee meeting on Monday.  A video of the meeting can be seen online at www.CentralSpeaks.com by clicking on the CentralSpeaksTV logo at the top of any page.

    On Monday, April 11th, the committee chaired by Council Member Tony LoBue to study the feasibility of hiring a full time city attorney met at City Hall.  During the course of the meeting Council Member LoBue handed out all legal bills to the City of Central from July 1, 2010 through February 28, 2011.  The July through October bills had previously been released with certain items redacted which pertained to current or potential litigation.  The copies handed out by LoBue on Monday were not redacted, meaning that the confidential information was available for these citizens to review without approval of the City Council, the Mayor or the City Attorney.  The billing records for November of 2010 through February of 2011 have never been reviewed by the Council or the City Attorney to determine if there were items in these bills which needed to remain confidential.

   After the 12:30 PM Monday meeting, Council Member LoBue consulted with City Attorney Sheri Morris and was advised that LoBue should have gone before the council for their approval before passing out the records.  LoBue then was able to get the billing records back from several committee members immediately, but at least three of the committee members had already left with the confidential information.  LoBue stated Monday after 5:00 PM that he was going to pick up the records from the committee members, and on Tuesday morning he reported that he had retrieved all seven copies of the records.  If these billing records are consistent with other legal bills received by the city, there is a note printed at the top of each page of the records stating that the records are confidential and are not to be released or distributed without permission.

    The July and August legal billing records were brought before the City Council in a called meeting on November 22, 2010.  The minutes of the meeting reflect: “Councilman DeJohn made a motion, seconded by Councilman Washington to waive the attorney/client and attorney work product privileges with the exception of two items with the recommendation from Sheri Morris applicable to the July and August 2010 invoices in regards to a public records request. No objections. Motion passed by unanimous consent.” – The two items which the Council voted to protect were handed by LoBue to the citizens, unredacted, on Monday.

    At that same November 22nd meeting Council Member DeJohn asked the question, “We can go get a copy of the invoice just because we are Council Members?”  To which the City Attorney stated to all in attendance, including Mr. LoBue, “We have allowed Council Members to obtain copies so that they can review them outside of normal business hours but you are not allowed to release them.”  Mr. DeJohn added, “As long as everbody understands that, because I would hate to have somebody take something out of there that I might think is a sensitive matter and they not think is sensitive.”

At the December 14th regular City Council meeting the legal bills for September and October were reviewed.  The minutes of the meeting reflect: “A motion was made by Councilman Moak to waive the attorney/client and attorney work product privileges with the exception of three items with the recommendation from Sheri Morris applicable to the September and October 2010 invoices in regards to a public records request. No objections. Motion passed by unanimous consent.” Again, the three items which the Council voted to protect were handed to the citizens, unredacted, on Monday by LoBue.