FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - The State Journal is asking Kentucky’s Attorney General to find that the City of Frankfort violated the Open Meetings Act in the lead up to firing the former city manager.
The move comes after the paper asked the Frankfort City Commission to acknowledge that it had violated the Act by holding a series of less-than-quorum meetings to secure the votes needed to fire Keith Parker, The State Journal reported.
Frankfort Mayor Bill May has denied any intent to violate open meetings law. He has said any conversations about Parker were “informational and educational updates only,” and there was no discussion of how any commissioner was going to vote.
The law does not prohibit discussions between individual members of panel to “educate the members on specific issues.” But Parker has said a commissioner twice told him the mayor “had the votes” to fire him, indicating that votes were discussed prior to the Aug. 10 meeting where he was fired.
Commissioner Katrisha Waldridge agreed that the panel violated the Open Meetings Act, saying a majority of the commission appeared to have already reached a consensus on Parker’s firing before the vote.
State Journal Publisher Steve Stewart called the city’s defense “entirely specious” in his appeal to the attorney general’s office.
“How does one commission member ‘educate’ another member about an employee’s dismissal and why shouldn’t the public be afforded the same ‘educational opportunities,’ ” Stewart wrote in the appeal. Stewart cited a 2010 decision from the Attorney General’s Office that ruled against a county Fiscal Court trying to use a similar defense.
Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office confirmed receipt of the complaint on Thursday. The city has three days to file a written response.
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