FALL 2005 NEWSLETTER
GEORGIA F.O.I. ACCESS
GEORGIA FIRST AMENDMENT FOUNDATION


The first lawsuit of Baker's Mediation era has a Georgia sports-page emphasis

By Tom Bennett 

    Atlanta, Oct. 13, 2005 -- There are other targets of a deeper texture, yet the first lawsuit of Thurbert Baker's Open Government Mediation Program  addresses the issue of non-profits doing a city's work.  It sets out to fully crack open all the details of bids for  a big football game and a stock-car racing museum. 
    
     The suit is "Thurbert E. Baker in his official capacity as Attorney General of Georgia v. Metropolitan Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Inc.,  Central Atlanta Progress Inc., the Super Bowl Bid Committee and the NASCAR Hall of Fame committee."  It was filed Aug. 18 in Fulton County Superior Court.  These committees boast influential elected leaders including Gov. Perdue and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.   All have been identified by their official capacities in various public pronouncements, the suit asserts.  In addition, the Georgia Dome is "a publicly owned building... financed with millions of dollars of government bonds... “ The suit has identical language regarding the Super Bowl and the racing museum  In each case: 

     "Over $100,000 in public money has already been spent in public improvements ...  Yet the actual amount of public money that has been spent on attempting to obtain the Super Bowl cannot be determined since all documents that might show this have not been released."  All the stand-ins carrying water for the city of Atlanta were "acting as 'public agencies' as that phrase is used by the case law interpreting the Open Records Act," the suit states.

     It has made Georgia freedom of information history.  "This is the first instance where it has been necessary to resort to litigation since the Mediation Program was instituted," said Russ Williard, a spokesman for the Attorney General's office.  The 32 NFL owners have since voted to reaffirm Miami, not Atlanta, as the site of the 2010 Super Bowl, according to Tim Tucker's article in the Journal-Constitution Oct. 7.  The owners turned a cold shoulder to Atlanta.  They want a sunny site for their event, and when the Super Bowl was held here  the last time, in 2000, the city was crippled by an ice storm. 

     In addition, the Journal-Constitution published many details Sept. 10 about a proposed $92 million NASCAR museum.  It is talked about for land owned by Ted Turner and next to Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta. The 55-year sports columnist Furman Bisher wrote in the AJC that the museum belongs in Daytona Beach. 

     However, the attorney general's lawsuit remains in force, according to Spokesman Russ Williard.  "The defendants have not filed their response yet, so the only filings thus far are the complaint, the AJC's motion to intervene, and the court's order granting intervention," Willard said. 

     Thurbert Baker became attorney general and changed Georgia FOI by making it an integral part of his Law Department in 1998.  It is his Open Government Mediation Program.  He emphasizes it so much that it is the fourth click in the left rail in his web site:
http://www.ganet.org/ago/

     The intent is to make a record of complaints around a large, 159-county state, and mediate settlements without going to court.  Hundreds of complaints are on file.   Baker has issued important letter ruling regarding the secret meetings of the Augusta Aviation Commission; the bid for the Olympic Games by the Georgia Amateur Athletic Foundation; how open Georgia State Patrol was being in 1999 about Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Reports; and more. 

     In January 1999, the Atlanta Press Club sponsored a debate on city of Atlanta public record access, which the Journal-Constitution alleged was spotty at best.  The debate at Sylvia's Restaurant opposite City Hall  was moderated by Hollie Manheimer, executive director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.   

     The Journal-Constitution then was trying to dig out details of corruption in the administration of Mayor Bill Campbell.  A high-ranking city official, who later went to jail, said that night:  "Don't send me open-records requests.  If you want something, call me and we'll try to get the information you want." 

     Dennis Dunn, an expert on reapportionment and the voting Rights Act,  then also was the Georgia deputy attorney general working on FOI for Baker.   "There will come a time when it will be necessary to sue someone, " Dunn said.  "It is a last resort.  But if we have to sue a government, we will." 

     Kathryn Allen and Stefan Ritter have followed Dunn as the Law Department point persons for open government.  A little over four years have transpired since Dunn made his statement at Sylvia's Restaurant. With the filing of the August 2005 sports-spectaculars lawsuit in Fulton Court, Baker's office has made good its threat.