Judge Rejects Newspapers Attempt to Halt Secret Meetings Between Council and Nutter
Get inside the halls of Philadelphia power with PhillyClout: Inside City Hall, the blog by the Philadelphia Daily News' city hall reporters.
Judge Rejects Newspapers Attempt to Halt Secret Meetings Between Council and Nutter
Catherine Lucey
Common Pleas Judge Gary DiVito has denied a request by the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer for an injunction against future closed-door budget briefings between the mayor and a quorum of City Council members.Citing the state Sunshine Law, which requires most government meetings with a quorum of officials to be held in public, the owner of the newspapers sued Wednesday after reporters were denied entry to a budget session with the mayor and Council.
Nutter – who campaigned with the promise of a more open and transparent government – insisted the meeting was appropriate because no official action would be taken. But the next day, he transferred seven budget-related bills to Council for their approval.
DiVito seemed to rule largely on technicalities. He wrote that since no action was taken in the meeting, there was nothing for him to stop. He also said the newspapers sued Nutter and Council President Anna Verna, rather than City Council as an agency, even though the Sunshine Law applies to agencies. And he said no evidence was offered on what happened in the meeting.
“Anything Plaintiff offered would be pure speculation which would provide no legal basis upon which this Court could determine the legality of the subject meeting,” DiVito wrote.
QUOTE:" And he said no evidence was offered on what happened in the meeting." What came first- the chicken or the egg? If the newspapers are not there how can they offer evidence? Duh. The whole purpose of the Sunshine Law is to open the discussion to the public. Dumb ruling.— andy
Comment removed.- They did aim it at the right entities. The council president calls the meetings, and is the appropriate person to sue in her official capacity when suing City Council. Just like in U.S. federal cases, you sue the Secretary of Defense, not the Defense Department. And the no evidence of what went on thing is just absolute malarkey on the part of the judge. It's what you get when you have elected, under-qualified, politically sensitive (and connected) judges.— WaltRiceJr
- The legality of the law aside, what is the goal here. If you limit these kinds of meetings, wouldn't the Mayor just meet with a quorum-minus-one number of councilmembers?— Politburo
- Coming from a new lawyer, I can saw most of the judges in Philly are political hacks, and they're stupid. Not a good ruling.— chrissmith
- I'm not a lawyer. I'm a journalist (not in Philly). And of course I'm furious about this, but even I recognize that Nutter could care less about bad press from the meeting being closed, since he knew he was going to get much worse press from the budget cuts no matter what.— Nutburgers
- "I'm mad as hell and Im not taking it anymore!" Name me ONE truth-telling politician...only ONE !— whatthe?
- the city uses reporters when they need them and then ignore them later— jtap1981
- I hope the newspapers appeal the ruling to the appellate court.— NotADoneDeal
- Comment removed.
Follow Chris on Twitter
David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
Follow Dave on Twitter.
Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
Follow Jan on Twitter
Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
Follow Sean on Twitter
