“CH lawyer blames his high legal bill on citizen group”

Written By: admin - Feb• 18•13

 

Public records » State panel rejects group’s effort to view city’s un-redacted invoices.

By Cimaron Neugebauer  | Last Updated Feb 17 2013 12:10 am

“Cedar Hills’ attorney says a community watchdog group is mainly responsible for $160,000 in attorney fees the city paid over the past 1½ years.

“To check that claim, the group — Cedar Hills Citizens for Responsible Government (CHCRG) — sought copies of the city’s legal billing invoices.”…

For complete story see…   http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55833406-78/div-records-committee-neugebauer.html.csp?page=1


We, at CHCRG, believe the City’s self-congratulations on a “victory” on the city’s website should be embarrassing for them.  We don’t believe these city officials understand what their redaction “win” really means in the eyes of the community.

What true public servant Official would want to claim a “win” when they were holding back information on legal billing records from the public, AND, costing CH taxpayers $160,000 in legal bills in the process?  If that’s a “win”, then who is the winner?  Certainly not CH taxpayers, or our objective of “open, honest and transparent” government!

The fact of the matter is that every time CHFRG has taken the City before the Utah State Records Committee, it was because the City refused to provide the public records as GRAMA legally requested.  All three requests for a Hearing of the Records Committee have resulted in the City providing MORE information they had not provided when they supposedly “complied” with the GRAMA request.

1.   June 15, 2012, the Utah State Records Committee ORDERED the City to gather and provide CHCRG all responsive city business emails between the Mayor, Council & City Manager hidden on personal email accounts not provided to City Recorder and maintained as required by Utah State law.  Our Appeal was “GRANTED”.  See  http://archives.utah.gov/src/srcappeal-2012-11.html

Score: WIN for citizens!

2.   Sept. 13, 2012, the night before this Hearing the City dropped off the final box of 6000+ emails to CHCRG.  While we didn’t get our $766 back, our requested Hearing succeeded in “inspiring” the City to finally perform on the June 15th ORDER – which was our primary objective.  We succeeded.  Two newspapers blasted the City for not providing the information in the public interest, for free.  (See http://www.cedarhillscitizens.org/sl-tribune-daily-herald-come-to-our-defense/ )    Nevertheless…

Score: WIN for citizens!

3.   Feb 14, 2013, two business days after filing our Appeal for a  Hearing, the City was suddenly “motivated” to change their GRAMA response and add most the info as requested.  Unfortunately, the city was not required to provide the “subject” of the billings because the Committee believed their claim of “ongoing lawsuits” – though we are aware of none, by anyone.  (This makes the costs and their purposes difficult, if not impossible, to understand.)

Score: PARTIAL WIN for citizens of 64 pages of redacted (edited) billings.  HUGE LOSS for taxpayers at $160,000 for unclear legal services.

 

Final Score:

. . . CHCRG 6064+ pages of public records exposed

to

. . .Mayor, Council, Staff & Attorney $160,000 wasted taxpayer dollars

 

The only thing this current City Council & Staff & attorney has proven is that they are not in favor of providing more public records, thoroughly and quickly, to the public they supposedly serve.  They have also demonstrated a clear pattern to “game the system” by using expensive attorney fees (taxpayer dollars) to fight to withhold information, delay, obfuscate, allow public records to be destroyed, and not maintain CH public records current and complete form, as required by law.  CHCRG does not believe this to be “open, honest & transparent government”.

The City attorney misled the Records Committee with many false claims before the Committee, which may be addressed here at www.CHC.org at a later time.

 

In the meanwhile, what Cedar Hills residents need to understand is that IF our Mayors, Councils and CH Staff had simply and consistently obeyed the law, and provided the records when GRAMA requested, there would have been no need to waste anywhere near $160,000 in taxpayer money.  City officials should NOT blame the citizens wanting to know and obtain the truth, –but rather, they should blame themselves for attempting to hide, withhold and destroy embarrassing truths about their actions documented in the public record, and spending taxpayer money to do it.

This brand of “honesty” & “transparency” is expensive!  Is it time to CHANGE the direction of CH leadership?

Anyone desiring for copies of ALL 6000+ pages of illegal secreted emails & 64 pages of redacted legal billings, please send that email request to Info@CedarHillsCitizens.org

 

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