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Spotsylvania County Attorney Jacob Stroman says supervisor legally met in closed session to discuss a business that had already announced expansion plans in the community Date published: 9/3/2008
By DAN TELVOCK Spotsylvania County Attorney Jacob Stroman says supervisors did not violate the open-meeting laws when they met in closed session Aug. 12 to discuss incentives for a business that had already announced its expansion plans in the community. Creative Dimension Group, a millwork company, had already announced in July its plans to leave the Spotsylvania Industrial Park to expand in the city. The Fredericksburg City Council offered $200,000 in incentives over 10 years. According to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, a governing body can discuss in a closed meeting the expansion of and incentives for a local business if a prior announcement had not been made in the community. The question in this instance is whether CDG's announcement in July to leave the county and expand in the city constitutes an announcement in the community. After the city offer was announced, a real estate agent contacted Spotsylvania County Economic Development Director Russell Seymour about a possible location for CDG at the Motion Control Building on Shannon Drive. Russell informed CDG officials about the property and about a month later supervisors met in closed session to discuss the business and incentives. The supervisors came out of closed session and pas-sed a resolution offering The Free Lance-Star argued later, when it found out the company was CDG, that the supervisors should have discussed the proposal in public because the same business had already announced plans to expand in the city. Alan Gernhardt, staff attorney for the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council, said: "It sounds like there was definitely an announcement by the company of their plans to expand in the community." But Gernhardt said the FOI Act does not define "community." He said one could argue that Spotsylvania and Fredericksburg do not share a community. The FOI Act does require that its provisions be liberally construed to promote open government.
Read more stories about Spotsylvania Date published: 9/3/2008
that make me wonder, and should make the BOS wonder, what kind of lawyer we have out there in Spotsy CH; the lawyers "conflict of interest" in the Marshall/Vet case and this latest ruling. This is really troubling.
In order for the Spotsy Attorney to convince himself that the CDG deal was not public, he has to ignore the public proceedings of the City Council, the minutes and the video record of those proceedings, and that the information was carried in public fora like the Internet and newspaper. Since lawyers are fond of using the word, I will. A Reasonable Person would not interpret the FOIA statute this way. The attorney shows a bias toward withholding information and mitigating risk of litigation.
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