PORTSMOUTH
The council rule that fines members $1,500 for speaking about closed meeting information has likely cost the city more than $54,600 in legal fees, according to an email from Deputy City Manager Vincent Jones.
The fees went to the attorneys that City Council members used to defend themselves in colleague Bill Moody’s lawsuit against them.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, Vice Mayor Elizabeth Psimas and Moody made motions to add a discussion of the rule to the agenda. Both motions failed.
Moody’s motion was “specifically to rescind the rule that has cost the taxpayers thus far about $55,000,” he said. Beyond the “monetary aspect of it, it’s served to divide this council needlessly.”
The $1,500 rule was created a year ago after Moody and Psimas spoke to The Virginian-Pilot about the council’s closed-door discussion of pursuing a court order to remove a Confederate monument.
The rule gave the council the power to censure or fine anyone who reveals matters discussed in a closed meeting or uses a recording device in a meeting.
In January, Moody was fined because he had posted on Facebook ahead of a December closed session that the council would discuss the monument.
Moody handed over the cash the moment he was fined and hired an attorney shortly afterward.
Council members informed Moody of his fine through a letter signed by five councilmen, including Mayor Kenny Wright.
Moody’s lawsuit went before Circuit Judge Catherine Hammond, who ruled the council violated the Freedom of Information Act in the way it fined him.
The letter informing Moody of the fine – which was distributed during a closed session and signed by five of seven council members – required a vote in front of the public, Hammond ruled in June. Voting can’t occur in closed session, or by secret ballot, Hammond wrote, citing Virginia law.
The lawsuit isn’t over yet.
Moody’s attorney, Kevin Martingayle, has been trying to reach a settlement with the attorneys representing other council members.
In an Aug. 2 letter to the attorneys, Martingayle wrote that he and Moody proposed remedies including a repeal of the rule and a $10,000 payment for Moody’s fees.
Psimas said they would try again to rescind the rule once they had all the council members in attendance. Councilman Danny Meeks was absent Tuesday.
“But this is why we have so many people running for City Council and for mayor,” she said. “The public is fed up with this nonsense of fining and, you know, hiding behind closed doors.”
Wright declined to comment when asked whether the fining rule was worth it.
Johanna Somers, 757-446-2478,
johanna.somers@pilotonline.com
Follow @JohannaSomers1 on Twitter.
