BLYTHEWOOD – Blythewood’s newly elected mayor, Sloan Griffin, III, campaigned on transparency and has long and publicly criticized former Mayor Bryan Franklin and the Town’s outside legal team for not releasing the cost of the MPA lawsuits and other MPA information to the public.
During Tuesday night’s special called town council meeting, however, Griffin appears to have changed his mind, saying he, also, cannot release the cost of the MPA lawsuits and other MPA information to the public, “until I get favorable pieces [sic] back from our legal team.”
That is the same legal team that Griffin had said he would terminate on day one of his term as mayor.
Griffin had let it be known during his campaign that if elected mayor, he would also immediately stop the Town’s money bleed by settling MPA’s lawsuit against the Town, dismissing the Town’s countersuit, and immediately releasing the Town’s MPA legal expenses.
He was subsequently elected by a landslide over Franklin, with 69 percent of the vote, a mandate, Brock said at the Nov. 28 meeting, for Griffin to put a quick end to the lawsuit drain on the town’s funds.
After a three-hour executive session on Tuesday with the Town’s outside legal team, however, Griffin, like Franklin before him, had praise for the attorneys, calling them “awesome,” and referring to them warmly as, “our legal team.”
When asked from the audience when it would be announced publicly how much the Town has paid for the Town’s outside attorneys for MPA legal matters, Griffin hedged.
“As we explore a settlement, I don’t want to hurt or damage ourselves with a number,” Griffin said.
“Give us a little while. We will, as I promised, put this information out in its totality.”
For security reasons, Griffin said he wanted to develop a settlement first.
Griffin said, prior to Tuesday night’s special called meeting, that he was calling it for the purpose of releasing MPA legal information to the public, and would give the news media copies of the Town’s MPA expenses on a spreadsheet following the meeting.
“We made a promise to the people that we’re going to be transparent,” Griffin said on Nov. 28, his first night in office, less than an hour after being sworn in. “I put this on the agenda tonight to show you all that we mean business from day one.”
The agenda item he referenced called on council members to authorize him to handle all things legal regarding MPA Strategies in the same way the majority of council authorized Franklin two years ago.
The former council majority of Rich McKenrick, Franklin and Eddie Baughman have continually opposed releasing itemized legal expenses, saying that releasing that information would jeopardize the town’s legal strategy.
“I want to be as transparent as I can be,” Griffin said Tuesday night. “It was a long meeting but a lot of information came out, a lot of discussion, a lot of advice on which way to move, a lot of advice on what to do and what not to do.”
But, like Franklin before him, Griffin refused to pass any of that information along to the public Tuesday night.
“I believe the way we’re going to move in this new administration is going to give us a new life as an administration to move forward, do the good things that this town has done,” he said. “What we’ve told the citizens of Blythewood we’re going to do, we’re going to do in the most harmonious way possible. We’re going to work together and do what we need to do.”
He also announced that Judge Cliffton Newman had denied, earlier that day, MPA’s motion to quash and/or protect against a motion filed by the Town to compel and for sanctions against MPA. Black said in a council meeting earlier this year that he had successfully tried cases under Judge Newman and he praised Newman as a fair judge.
“I, the mayor, have directed our [outside] legal counsel to explore a favorable settlement or other options with respect to all MPA Strategies litigation,” Griffin said. “So, I am going to put out as much information as possible.”
Like Franklin before him, Griffin said after his election that he would post documents related to the lawsuits on the Town’s website. Neither has done that.
“Your town is open and your town is transparent,” Griffin said at the close of the Nov. 28 meeting.
