Fort Smith citizen Bruce Wade has filed a second lawsuit against individual Fort Smith City Directors Keith Lau, Andre Good, and Mike Lorenz for alleged violations that the three individual directors committed against the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
The lawsuit was announced Monday afternoon by Wade’s attorney, Joey McCutchen of Fort Smith.
In his first lawsuit, Wade alleged that certain city directors violated the Freedom of Information Act by engaging in a secret email chain that constituted an informal meeting.
“This second lawsuit shows the arrogance of certain city directors when we provide them with a clear-cut statement of the law from the clear authority on the Freedom of Information,” said McCutchen.
The new lawsuit against the City Directors as individuals in order to avoid costing taxpayer money in defending the lawsuit against the board members who had “thumbed their nose” at the requirements of law.
Wade’s lawsuit quotes from what McCutchen says is the definitive textbook on the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act written by Professor John Watkins of the University of Arkansas Law School.
That book states:
“A governing body must hold a public meeting even if its purpose is to discuss proposals or gather information. As the Attorney General has observed:
[T]he conduct of public business, for purposes of the Freedom of Information Act, does not consist merely of the final result reached by a public body, but rather is a spectrum including all phases of the process by which an end result is achieved, including deliberations, discussion, and information gathering. Accordingly, the Freedom of Information Act gives the public the right to observe the entire spectrum, not just selected parts.” J. Watkins, R. Peltz-Steele, and R. Steinbuch, The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act 333-334 (Sixth Ed. 2017), citing Ark. Op. Att’y Gen. Nos. 80-16, 97-080, 95-308, 95-098, 91-225, and 91-175.”
Wade’s lawsuit cites an Attorney General’s Opinion written in 2005 in support of the claim that there was a violation of FOIA.
“Apparently, these three City Directors, who held a secret meeting, and have already voted against the settlement proposal, failed to read Mr. Wade’s first complaint. That lawsuit contains a verbatim quotation of the law that these Directors chose to ignore,” said McCutchen. “That’s why we sued them personally rather than suing the City of Fort Smith so that Mr. Lau, Mr. Good, and Mr. Lorenz could be personally compelled to stop violating the requirements of FOIA.”
In the lawsuit, City Directors Keith Lau and Mike Lorenz either directly or essentially asked other directors to “close their eyes” in an attempt to avoid violating FOIA. Lau specifically told other directors to “close their eyes” to his e-mail.
Lorenz told other directors to “feel free to stop reading at this point and delete this email if you do not want to see my opinion.”
Good also said that he “whole-heartedly” agreed with Lau.
The “secret e-mail meeting” between the three Directors concluded with a vote of three directors voting against Bruce Wade’s proposal and four directors, who were included in the secret email chain, but did not discuss the matter or vote.
“We all thought that all of our city directors could at least read the law as it was quoted by the most respected authority in Arkansas. Apparently, we were wrong,” said McCutchen. “That’s why we are asking the Court for relief — so that we can stop these secret and unlawful meetings from being held.”
The complete text of the new lawsuit can be viewed HERE.
