Sandpoint council votes to release third-party legal opinion on Lake City Law agreement

The Sandpoint City Council voted Wednesday to publicly release a third-party legal opinion concerning the expiration of the city’s legal services agreement with Lake City Law.

Council President Deb Rule called the special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 22 in the council chambers to consider the release. A motion to release the third-party opinion was made and seconded and passed on a roll-call vote, with the six members present voting "yes." The vote occurred before the council moved into an executive session later in the meeting.

The vote followed comments from council members urging transparency. "I just wanted to thank everybody for considering this. I think the release of this document is gonna go a long way to give transparency to the public about what transpired and how we came to the decision that we came to," Councilman Shriver said.

Councilor Rick Howarth asked why only one opinion was being released and not all legal opinions the city had obtained. "If we're trying to be transparent with the public, why are we only releasing one of the opinions and not all of them?" he asked.

City legal counsel, identified in the meeting as Miss Jovic, explained limits on disclosure under attorney–client privilege and the entity privilege rule. "Attorney–client privileged communications, which this is, are held in confidence...when you represent an entity like yourselves, it requires a vote from all of you to determine whether or not a privileged communication is released," she said, adding that a separate opinion by Mr. Harrington had already been released earlier by the mayor.

After the vote, Jovic said the council approved release of a legal opinion authored by Susan Weeks of the law firm James, Vernon & Weeks. The council did not, in the recorded discussion, vote on releasing any other legal opinions; Councilor Howarth indicated he might bring forward a future agenda item to address release of additional documents.

The council did not specify the full contents of the released opinion in the public meeting; the transcript shows council members discussing privilege and whether another opinion was privileged or could be released without a vote.

The decision to release the third-party opinion follows recent public attention to the city’s legal services agreement expiry and prior public references to an opinion by Mr. Harrington. The council’s action makes one additional legal analysis available for public review pending any further votes on other opinions.