Mickey Waller, the attorney for the city’s insurance carrier, negotiated the settlement with Mayor Markeita Bullard’s attorney T. Gamble in October 2008 just before the trial was supposed to start in federal court.

But almost three months later, no one outside of Bullard and the attorneys seem to know how much was paid.

Robert Richardson, the attorney for the city of Newton, said that it was his understanding that Waller was compiling a presentation for the city council that would explain the settlement and its impact.

But, after checking with the Newton city clerk, Waller has yet to be placed on the agenda for next week’s meeting.

“It was my understanding that, at some point, he was going to notify or explain the settlement to the council,” Richardson said. “And I haven’t heard anything different.”

Attorneys from both sides agreed to keep the terms of the settlement secret, Gamble said, but because Waller was acting as an agent of the city of Newton, and the settlement could have an impact on premium costs the taxpayers have to cover, several legal experts believe the agreement should be disclosed.

Hollie Manheimer, an attorney and founder of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, says that Georgia law forbids municipalities from entering into confidential agreements.

“Settlement agreements with municipalities, cannot be confidential,” she wrote in an e-mail to the Herald.

The Herald has an ongoing request under the Georgia Open Records Act to the City of Newton to furnish copies of the agreement to the paper for dissemination to the public.

“The only issue is that we don’t have that agreement and it hasn’t been provided to the city so we can’t turn it over,” Richardson said. “When it is made available to us, then we’ll examine it and follow the law.”