Sierra Club clips Ogden City for $10,000 in costs/attorneys' fees; declares total victory
We're pleased to report this morning that The Sierra Club and Ogden City have settled their gondola-related open records lawsuit, which had been pending for three years running. The Sierra Club, plaintiff, has reportedly received from defendant, Ogden City, 43 of the 46 disputed records and clipped Ogden City for $10,000 attorneys' fees. The Sierra Club quite properly considers this a complete victory, as is more thoroughly set forth in this morning's press release:
Be sure to visit the Sierra Club website, where you can examine the array of documents finally released to the persistent Sierra Club plaintiff:
Putting it all in a nutshell, these records document both "the depth of involvement of Ogden City officials and others in promoting the gondola-resort proposal," and "city’s overly broad interpretations of several GRAMA exemptions." Additionally, these documents "highlight the city administration’s troubling preoccupation with secrecy, even in instances when the withheld records contained no information worth protecting." Moreover, these documents expose the bad behavior of almost everyone involved in the Gondola Fiasco, from Boss Godfrey, to the Ogden Records Review Board, to officials of the Utah Transit Authority, etc.
A Weber County Forum Tip O' The Hat this morning to the Ogden Sierra Club for its dogged pursuit of the truth in this matter, and for serving as a champion of government transparency and accountability.
And no... we're not happy to observe that Ogden City taxpayers have coughed up $10k in costs and attorneys' fees. Having said that however, we'll also observe that it wouldn't have had to happen this way, if Boss Godfrey had in good faith complied with GRAMA in the first place.
Okay... that's it from us for now.
Time for our gentle readers to let 'er rip.
Update 6/3/11 7:20 p.m.: The Salt Lake Tribune is carrying Cathy McKitrick's writeup on its website:
Update 6/4/11 4:13 a.m.: The Standard-Examiner is now running the story too:
Friday, June 03, 2011
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