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Sunday, February 12, 2006

Ind. Gov't. - Legal bills arrive for the City of Kokomo

Earlier this morning the ILB posted an entry on Fort Wayne's legal bills. The Kokomo Tribune had a very long story Friday by Scott Smith headlined "Legal bills arrive for city: More than $33,000 spent defending controversial lawsuits." The story begins:

Ryan Nees said he went looking for Mayor Matt McKillip’s master list of e-mail addresses after receiving what he called a “spam” political e-mail from the mayor.

City officials told Nees he wasn’t entitled to a copy of the list. They said he could inspect it and copy it by hand.

Nees said state law entitled him to copies.

The city said Nees’ interpretation of the law was incorrect and that handing out copies of the list could result in more spam for city residents.

Rather than provide the Western High School student with copies of the list, the city has so far spent $4,387 on lawyers to fight the teen’s public records lawsuit.

“I think it’s a shame they spent a dime,” Nees said. “They didn’t have to.”

For background on the Nees issue, see this ILB entry from 10/18/05 and this one from 1/19/06.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 12, 2006 10:04 AM
Posted to Indiana Government | Indiana Law