Wednesday, January 23, 2002
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Wednesday, January 23, 2002 |
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Judge disqualifies himself in Citizen's secrecy suit Judge Chris Edwards has disqualified himself from hearing The Citizen newspapers' lawsuit seeking a halt to secret meetings between representatives of Fayette County and its three largest cities. The next judge in the rotation, Ben Miller, Tuesday was considering whether to take the case or recuse himself as well. If all of Fayette's judges decline to hear the case, a visiting judge would have to be appointed to hear it. Representatives of the governments are meeting in secret with a professional mediator at the order of Judge Stephen Boswell in hopes of resolving a long-standing dispute over tax equity. City leaders say their residents pay more to the county in taxes than they receive in services, about $2 million inequity every year. County leaders say there is no inequity. Boswell ordered the mediation under a state law governing such disputes. But Don Johnson, attorney for The Citizen, argues that there is nothing in the law providing for the public to be shut out of the meetings, and doing so is in violation of state Open Meetings statutes. Local leaders told The Citizen the lawsuit is without merit, because the city councils and County Commission are not meeting in secret only their representatives. But Johnson said the Open Meetings law also applies to appointed committees of the governing bodies, and he pointed out that the initial meeting did include quorums of all the governments involved. After leaders questioned The Citizen's grasp of the facts in the case this week, Cal Beverly, editor and publisher of the paper, responded, "That's precisely the point. We don't have the facts because they're doing everything in secret."
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