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Open Meetings complaint seeks to void council vote to expand investigation

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By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Friday, Feb. 17, 2017, 1 a.m. — The complaint filed Wednesday alleging the Bardstown City Council violated state law and the Kentucky Open Meetings Act seeks to nullify the council’s unanimous vote to expand its investigation of city government and to make any contracts resulting from that vote null and void.

The complaint centers on an executive session the council called near the end of its Jan. 24, 2017 meeting.

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MAYOR JOHN ROYALTY

The complaint, filed on behalf of Mayor John Royalty’s office by local attorney Jason Floyd, states that Councilman John Kelley failed to correctly cite KRS 61.810(f), one of the 13 exemptions that allow a public agency to close a meeting to the public.

The exemption Kelley cited deals with personnel matters and specifically, “discussions or hearings which might lead to the appointment, discipline or dismissal of an individual employee, member or student.”

The complaint states Kelley failed to state in open meeting a specific reason for the closed meeting, and that he failed to state the general nature of the business to be conducted in closed session.

The closed meeting “was nothing more than a subterfuge to prevent the public from hearing the Council’s activities in that meeting for other purposes,” the complaint states.

The complaint also alleges the council violated state law when it excluded the mayor from the closed meeting. It cites KRS 61.130(5), which establishes that the mayor presides over council meetings, and that the council cannot take it upon themselves to revoke the mayor’s right to do so.

In addition to retraction of the vote expanding the council’s investigation, the complaint also asks:

— the council’s public acknowledgement of its Open Meetings Act violation;

— a return of any documents, records, or other materials obtained as part of the expanded investigation since the council’s Jan. 24 vote;

— reimbursement of costs and fees incurred by the mayor’s office in pursuing the complaint.

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