OPEN LETTER TO CITY COMMISSION: STOP DESTRUCTION OF DOCUMENTS

May 13, 2002

Grand Rapids City Commission
City Hall, Ninth Floor
300 Monroe Avenue, N.W.
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503

Re: The Local Area Watch v. The City of Grand Rapids, et al.
Case No. 02-00218-CZ

Dear Sirs:

I have received this morning a letter from Assistant City Attorney Daniel Ophoff stating that the City has destroyed and will continue to destroy minutes of City Commission executive session meetings that were explicitly requested in discovery by us in our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. This is, of course, contemptuous of both the purpose of the Freedom of Information Act and of the Court, which is entitled to review those minutes to determine whether they should be disclosed to us.

What is particularly troubling about the City’s destruction of these documents is that Mr. Ophoff was required to produce them for the Court’s review by the end of February. He refused but asked our attorney, Peter Steketee, if we would give the City an extension while he worked on an agreement with other City officials to informally show us these minutes. Assuming that Mr. Ophoff was making this request in good faith, Mr. Steketee agreed. What in fact happened is that Mr. Ophoff put off Mr. Steketee with various excuses for eleven weeks until the City was able to destroy these critical documents.

I doubt that Mr. Ophoff took it upon himself to obstruct our discovery of these documents. Our investigation will no doubt identify who instructed Mr. Ophoff to deceive Mr. Steketee. Meanwhile, Mr. Ophoff has promised that the City will continue destroying documents until we obtain an injunction to stop the City. As that will take time, the City Commission might for once in this matter act in the public interest and safeguard the principle of the Freedom of the Information Act by prohibiting any further destruction of executive session minutes until the Court has had the opportunity to examine them.

Sincerely,

Wm Q. Tingley III
Executive Director