BLYTHEWOOD – After town council held an hour-long executive session Monday night to discuss whether to release to the public the files, invoices, evidence and other documents related to the 2021 MPA Freedom of Information lawsuit against the Town, Councilwoman Erica Page made the motion to not release the documents to the public.
Page’s motion asked council to, “postpone indefinitely the release of these documents to the public at this time.”
Councilwoman Andrea Fripp seconded the motion, and council voted 3-1 for the postponement.
Page, Fripp, and Councilman Donald Brock voted to postpone. Mayor Sloan Griffin voted against the postponement. Councilman Rich McKenrick, who has long argued against making the MPA files public, did not attend the meeting.
Before making the motion, Page asked the Town’s Attorney Pete Balthazor to advise council as to how the members should vote.
“As everyone knows, I just gave that advice in executive session,” Balthazor replied. “Unless council waves privilege right now to have me speak freely about it, I don’t think now is the time, respectfully.”
The lawsuit in question was settled out of court in December, 2023, in MPA Strategies’ favor with the Town paying $36,000 for legal fees to MPA’s attorneys.
After watching the meeting online on Tuesday, Ashley Hunter, CEO of MPA Strategies sent the following comment to The Voice.
“After more than three years of tedious and expensive litigation, I was disappointed to see the town council vote against making the information about the FOIA lawsuit available to the public as the case has now been settled. I was optimistic that the public would be provided the full transparency. It is my hope that the Town will reconsider their position at the appropriate time.”
Making the Files Public
Prior to the vote, Griffin stated that the object of the agenda item was to make the files public.
“It’s to show the public exactly what we as a governing body ran on. I said a number on the news months ago, but that number [almost $700,000] has since changed,” Griffin said in a vague reference to a press conference he held on Dec. 11, announcing the firing of Maynard Nexsen law firm and Blythewood Attorney Shannon Burnett as well as how much the Town had spent on the lawsuit (up until that time).
“The object here is to release all this stuff to let the public see for themselves,” he said.
“Over the years, there have been some claims made about individuals, and this is just to clear the air,” he added. “But it’s up to this body to release that,” Griffin said.
Keeping the Files Secret
Both the Burnett and Maynard Nexsen law firms have turned all their files over to the town – Burnett in early January, 2024, and Maynard Nexsen a few weeks ago – according to Griffin. The only files that have been made public by the Town, however, are the statements (not invoices) for legal fees charged by Burnett and Maynard Nexsen [in the amount of $552,841.27] that were revealed by Griffin during his Dec. 11, 2023 press conference.
Shannon Burnett $238,753.75
Nexsen Pruet $209,287.07
Maynard Nexsen $104,800.45
Total: $552,841.36
Unpaid Invoices: $141,633.09
Grand Total: $694,474.35
Legal Costs Close to $1M
The Voice has since learned that additional invoices from Maynard Nexsen and the $36,000 settlement with MPA have brought the Town’s costs for the lawsuit closer to a million dollars, and that the costs are continuing to climb.
Griffin said that, although Nexsen Pruet turned many thousands of documents over to the Town, that the Town is having to pay Town Attorney Pete Balthazor’s law firm, Laney Pope, and Riley, to “categorize” them. Griffin said he doesn’t know when Laney Pope and Riley will finish categorizing the files or how much the firm is charging to categorize them. He said the Town has not yet been billed for that work.
The Promise of Transparency
During his run for mayor last fall, Griffin campaigned on transparency, saying “hiding behind attorneys would end;” that his “transparency policy will allow for a no-notice request to review all books at no cost to you daily.”
He promised to open the MPA legal files and post them on the Town’s website for all to see; to release the “evidence” that Black and former Mayor Bryan Franklin and other council members have repeatedly said is damning to MPA Strategies, Ashley Hunter, Brock, Griffin, The Voice newspaper, and its publisher, all of whom Black, Franklin and Councilman Rich McKenrick have made public reference to as being Hunter’s co-conspirators.
“From Day One, the books and doors of town hall are going to be open to the citizens,” Griffin wrote in his candidate profile. “I assure you there will be no more dark mysteries in this town hall.”
There has been no public explanation from the town attorney as to why or whether the Town should continue to keep the documents from a settled lawsuit secret from the public.
Defending Franklin
In the meantime, Attorney Andrew Lindemann is listed in the Richland County Public Index as defending the Town in a defamation lawsuit filed by MPA against former Mayor Bryan Franklin on Jan. 30, 2023. Attorney David Leon Morrison is listed as defending Franklin in the same lawsuit. Both Lindemann and Morrison are being paid by the Town’s municipal insurance company – according to former Town Administrator Carroll Williamson.
Town Mum on FOI Request
On March 4, 2024 – almost two months after Burnett turned her MPA files over to Town Hall – The Voice submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Griffin for Burnett’s files, with copies to Balthazor and Mayor Pro Tem Donald Brock.
Balthazor responded to that FOI on the tenth business day after receipt of the FOI, the deadline for the Town’s first response to the FOI.
“Upon initial review of the request, it appears that the records requested would be entitled to an exemption or a privilege preventing their disclosure to the public,” Balthazor wrote. “The Town has not waived, and is asserting, the attorney-client privilege concerning any documents from current or former counsel for the Town. The Town will provide you with any records that are not privileged or are non-exempt within thirty (30) days of the date of this letter.”
After the next 30 days came and went without a response from Balthazor or anyone else from Town Hall, The Voice sent an email reminding Griffin that the due date (April 17) for the response had passed. Griffin responded with an automated email that said he would respond as soon as possible.
Balthazor saw The Voice’s publisher on April 19 at a town council budget meeting, and voluntarily acknowledged that he had not responded to The Voice’s FOI request, adding that it could be another two to three weeks before he could get to it.
Asked if he would be sending Burnett’s documents at all, Balthazor said he didn’t know since those documents are attorney-client privileged. He said he would speak to the mayor about it when he had the chance. As of June 26, 2024, neither Balthazor nor the Town have contacted The Voice concerning the second required response to the March 4, 2024 FOI request.
“Foot dragging is a time honored practice of public bodies in response to records requests,” said Media Attorney Jay Bender who represents the S.C. Press Association. “While there is an attorney-client privilege, it belongs exclusively to the Town [not the attorney]. The Town could waive the privilege and any other possible exemption from mandatory disclosure, and make the records available immediately,” Bender said.
In Blythewood, the mayor can, himself, make those records public without the vote of council. During the Nov. 23, 2023, town council meeting, council voted (just as the previous council had voted) to give the mayor the authority to make all decisions for the Town in regard to the MPA lawsuit.
