Got a press release yesterday that veteran attorney Paul Whitfield will file a motion today accusing the city of Charlotte of violating the state’s Open Meetings Law when Charlotte City Council voted in secret to raise the city’s prepared food tax and use the proceeds to fund upgrades at Bank of America Stadium, which the Carolina Panthers own.
There’s an interesting back story to this: Whitfield successfully sued the city (and county commission and school board) on behalf of a group of journalists back in the early 1970s for violating the Open Meetings Law. The city was placed under a permanent injunction prohibiting it from again violating the Open Meetings Law. Whitfield contends that’s exact what the city did with its Panthers stadium deal, and is asking that the city be fined at least $1.4 million. Whitfield’s clients in the case — Bruce Bowers, Ken Koontz, Mike Cozza, and Wayne Powers — include three journalists involved in the original series of cases.
And a statement from the four journalists:
A permanent injunction is permanent. We contend the city violated Judge Snepp’s injunction and the NC Open Meetings Law with closed discussions and a secret tax vote. The mayor and city council have grown increasingly arrogant in handling public business behind closed doors. They now seek a major tax hike as if it were some private matter. Our contempt motion is non-partisan. It is not aimed at blocking renovation of the stadium. But it does intend to penalize the city for trampling on the mandate of the open meetings law — to conduct public business in public, for voters to see, hear and understand.
