SITKA, ALASKA
Back in 2008 and again earlier this year, Dove Island Lodge sued the City of Sitka in order to appeal decisions the Assembly had made about permits detailing how many people could stay at the lodge and what kinds of operations could happen at its dock. In May, Dove Island’s attorney approached the city about a settlement.
The Assembly considered that settlement in a closed session, ultimately rejecting Dove Island’s offer, but making a counter-offer. The counter-offer was eventually accepted and voted on in open session.
Betty Jo Moore filed a request to see all of the documents the Assembly members received in that closed session including a letter from Dove Island’s attorney to the Assembly.
“The Assembly reviewed that letter in an executive session,” said Moore’s attorney, Jim McGowan. “And based on whatever they saw in that letter, and whatever was said in that meeting, the Assembly reversed its long-held earlier position. My client would like to see what was in that letter.”
The Dove Island settlement ultimately approved by the Assembly in May contains no money, but allows the 24 guests per night (Dove Island’s original request) and up to a limit of 19-hundred guest bed nights per season. A guest bed night is measured as one guest on one night.
In court documents and in her correspondence with McGowan, Municipal Attorney Theresa Hillhouse cites a couple of reasons for withholding the documents. She points to exemptions in the state’s public records laws, allowing government officials the ability to deliberate in private. She also points to court rules on evidence, saying the documents should be kept confidential so they can’t be used against the city should the Dove Island cases come back before the court.
McGowan says the city's position “is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of one of the rules of evidence.”
He said the case the city is worried about has been dismissed “with prejudice,” which means both sides agree not to reopen the case. And because of that, McGowan says the public should be able to see the documents used in the settlement.
“It’s not like the posture of either of the parties in that case is going to come back and bite them in connection with the Dove Island dispute, because the Dove Island dispute is now over with,” he said. “We’re talking about here is an effort by the municipality – we’re talking about the Assembly and the municipal attorney’s office – to hide from the public the basis for the decision to resolve that lawsuit.”
He also says government officials are allowed private deliberation within the government, but not between the government and an outside party.
Hillhouse responded to Moore’s lawsuit in a document filed Friday in Sitka Superior Court. Hillhouse says Dove Island’s permit comes up for review annually, to determine whether they’re meeting the numerous conditions the city has imposed on the operation of the Lodge.
“Everything from when they’re running the plane to how many people they’re having at the facility,” she said during an interview. “If they breach any of those conditions, the way the permit is set up, is the permit can end. Therefore, based on what they agreed to, it still creates another life for the Dove Island litigation.”
Because of that, Hillhouse maintains her position that the documents are exempt from being disclosed, and that releasing them could hurt the city’s interests in future legal action. She also says the city has disclosed the final settlement and the documents relating to it, just not the documents about the offer Dove Island made that the city rejected.
Hillhouse also maintains her stance that city officials should have the ability to withhold things like settlement offers from the public. She says if they had to be disclosed, it might prevent plaintiffs in a lawsuit from making the offers in the first place, and that could hurt the city strategically.
“We’d have to make the overture,” she said. “Maybe we’re going to concede something we wouldn’t have to if the other side could make the first offer and it would be considered confidential unless accepted. It really is to try and serve the public. It’s an exemption that is recognized by law, and is to the benefit of the people.”
Moore’s lawsuit is not the first one she’s brought against the city. She worked for the city from 2000 until 2008. In September of 2006, while working for the municipal attorney’s office, Moore filed a lawsuit saying she was working in a hostile environment and subjected to on-the-job harassment. Both parties agreed to a dismissal of that suit in April 2007.
The current litigation – about whether to release the Dove Island documents – is awaiting action by the court.
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