Friday, July 09, 1999
Lawsuits claim Middletown violated open-meetings law
BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — A Middletown man has sued the Middletown City Commission and City Law Director Leslie Landen, accusing them of violating Ohio's open-meetings law and the city charter.
Michael Presta, who regularly attends the commission meetings, says in the lawsuits filed Thursday in Butler County Common Pleas Court that city commissioners or their personal representatives often attend city staff meetings that are closed to the public.
He said that because these meetings have resulted in recommendations to the full city commission, they should have been open to the public. The commissioners follow this practice for “the sole apparent purpose being to hide their dealings from public scrutiny,” a lawsuit says.
The suits, which Mr. Presta says he brought “on behalf of the city of Middletown and its citizens,” ask the court to order the commission to stop attending closed meetings.
But Mr. Landen said none of those meetings qualified as a public meeting under Ohio's “Sunshine Law” or the city charter.
Under Ohio law, a meeting would should be open to the public if a majority of the seven-member commission attends. Three or fewer commissioners attended these staff meetings, Mr. Landen said.
“There's nothing in the charter that would prevent that from occurring,” he said.
Mr. Presta also accuses the commissioners of negotiating a $57,000 consultant's contract with Fluor-Daniel through a committee that held illegal private meetings. He asks the court to suspend the contract.
But Mr. Landen said the contract was negotiated by the planning staff, not a committee that included commissioners.
Earl Smith, commission chairman, said the commissioners have been following Mr. Landen's legal advice concerning open and closed meetings.
“We'll abide by whatever the court says on it,” he said.
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