The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

City to pay newspaper $235,000 in law suit

By Justin Berton

The city of Sunnyvale will pay the San Jose Mercury News $235,569.23 in attorney fees and costs after a Superior Court judge ruled the city illegally held closed-door meetings and withheld documents regarding the punishment of deposed mayor Frances Rowe.

The payment will be the city's third largest in the past decade, according to the city's director of risk management, James Harrington.

The judgment is also the largest awarded to the Mercury News for violations of the Brown Act and Public Record Act, according to the newspaper's lawyer, James Chadwick.

Mayor Jim Roberts said the city would not appeal the judgment, and the payment will provide closure on the three-year-long issue.

"This ends it," Roberts said. "We don't want to waste any more tax dollars or resources."

The money will come from the city's annually self-funded liability and property program.

This year, the city has budgeted $791,819 for judgments and settlements against the city, according to Finance Director Mary Bradley. The Mercury News payment will use 29.5 percent of the fund.

Chadwick, one of three lawyers who represented the Mercury News, said the city could have avoided running up attorney fees had it turned over documents in a timely manner and had abandoned its argument that the meetings regarded private personnel matters.

"The cost was vastly, vastly in excess of what was necessary to end this case," Chadwick said.

The daily newspaper sued the city in 1995 after both the Sunnyvale Sun and Mercury News reported that councilmembers were meeting to discuss restricting Rowe from City Hall for anything other than official business.

The meetings came after Rowe's colleagues removed her from the mayor's seat for conduct unbecoming an elected official.

City officials have continually argued the meetings were legal because they dealt with personnel matters--a topic of discussion allowed to elected officials during closed sessions.

But in February, Judge Richard C. Turrone's summary judgment found the topic of the city's meetings to be of public interest and ruled in favor of the newspaper.

Roberts maintains that the city was justified in attempting to protect the privacy rights of the city attorney, Valerie Armento.

Armento was one of the city officials whose complaints about Rowe's behavior eventually led the council to act against Rowe.

"I feel like we fought the good fight to protect the privacy rights of a city employee," Roberts said. "I'm disappointed in the judge's ruling, but we don't have any other choice."

Lawyers for the city argued in part that the penalty was an unfair burden to the citizens and taxpayers of Sunnyvale.

But in his three-page ruling, Judge Richard C. Turrone wrote that while the court was aware of the costs to the city's residents, the fees to be paid are in fair compliance with the Public Records Act.

"It would be unjust and contrary to the legislative intent under these facts, to fail to compensate the plaintiff," Turrone wrote. "The court is mindful that failure to compensate a worthy party acting in the public interest would deter future actions seeking access to important public information."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, August 19, 1998.
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