Council President Ben Stuckart released the following statement to the media in response to Mayor David Condon's response to a recent City Council resolution:
On Friday, May 27th and again, on Monday, May 30th I asked Mayor Condon to meet with myself and the investigative committee to discuss the possibility, suggested by the committee, that the City hire Michael Harrington as special City Attorney for the investigation. This solution would not require the waiver of attorney-client privilege. In fact, it would allow documents to be released to the investigator, who would be retained by Mr. Harrington, under the protection of attorney-client privilege. Meanwhile, Ms. Cappel would write her report, which the Council could decide to release to the public. Only if the independent investigator decides that attorney-client privileged documents are relevant to and add to her report would she then use those documents in a later, supplemental report. The Council would then have to determine whether to release that supplemental report as well.
The entire premise of Mayor Condon’s letter is that by not releasing the documents, he is protecting attorney-client privilege. But he is not being asked to waive this. By hiring Mr. Harrington, the city gets the best of both worlds: a thorough and independent investigation while preserving and protecting attorney-client privilege. The mayor is not in an either/or situation. That is why I wanted to meet with him and the entire investigative team, a committee appointed by both the Council and the Mayor and which unanimously supports hiring Harrington. We must be able to sit down and talk about these issues as the investigation concludes.
Mayor Condon points to an email that was retrieved in a public records request to argue that we intended to violate the Public Records Act. Oddly, however, the email he points to in support of that claim was properly retained on the City’s email server and located as the result of a public records request.
I am very disappointed in Mayor Condon. He implies that my support for a solution which is endorsed by the investigator and the oversight committee is somehow evidence that my motivation in doing so is political gain. Mr. Condon’s statements imply that he thinks that simply insisting on the truth is “political.” I believe the public needs to know the full story if we are ever to have a realistic chance of avoiding repeated mistakes. That goal is not political; responding to a meeting request with a press release is.
I reiterate my request to Mr. Condon to sit down with him and the investigation committee so that we can iron out all issues remaining as the investigation reaches its conclusion.
