The Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau board went into a half-hour executive session Thursday, during a specially called meeting, to discuss potential litigation.
Local attorney David Owen requested documents on behalf of community members, at least one of which is recently fired CVB employee Adele Elliott.
“The letter is a discovery, requesting 24 groups of documents,” George Swales, president of the CVB board, said after the closed meeting.
Elliott granted the tourism bureau permission to release her personnel records to the attorney, he added. (Though Swales did not give Elliott”s name, Owen confirmed this morning, she is one of the parties seeking information.)
After the meeting, board member DeWitt Hicks announced the board had voted to select an attorney to respond to the request. Public-records requests alone are not valid reasons to go into executive session. Under the state”s open-records laws, public bodies have seven days to respond to the records requests. Additionally, members of any public board that enters illegally into executive session can be fined individually for violating open-meetings laws.
Owen said there is not a lawsuit involved in his request.
“I”ve got clients that want to know what”s going on with the CVB,” Owen said. “I provided them with a simple records request on the 15th. … They are everybody”s records; they”re not just mine. They”re the city of Columbus” It”s public record.”
Swales and CVB Director Nancy Carpenter could not be reached for comment, this morning.
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