Resident urges Erlanger council to keep deliberations public, warns of legal exposure

Scott Kimmick, a 26-year resident of Erlanger, told the council on Sept. 2 that he was concerned about the use of email and informal committee communications to discuss public business.

"When an ad hoc committee, a regular committee, a committee of the whole has a meeting, everything you discuss has to be of public record," Kimmick said during public comment. He warned that council members could be exposed to litigation costs if discussions outside public meetings produce information that leads to claims against the city.

Kimmick said he had watched an exchange on television involving a council member and the mayor about a sewer-line repair on the property of a fellow council member and that the city attorney had advised the issue should not be discussed. "There's a reason a city attorney says the issue shouldn't be discussed," he said, urging the council to make email communications public or file them as exhibits with the clerk.

Council members responded in the meeting. Councilwoman (unnamed in the record) said council emails are subject to open-records requests; the city attorney agreed. A council member who spoke during the exchange said he had not held himself out as an attorney and disputed an assertion about that status.

Kimmick said the public's right to know matters even when no final action occurs: "The statute and the crafters of that statute intended for the public to know." He told the council to provide emails to the clerk and make them public if they are being used to shape policy prior to meetings.

The mayor and council acknowledged Kimmick's remarks and moved on to the next agenda item without further deliberation. The city attorney and council members indicated they would follow open-records guidance; no formal action or direction to staff was taken at the meeting to change any internal email practices.

-- Ending: The public comment closed; council proceeded with the agenda.