At a June 27 meeting of the Bossier City Council Mayor Tommy Chandler again complained about a 2009 council ordinance that requires council approval of all new hires by the City of Bossier, even if the job position is contained within the budget.
This time Chandler advised the Council that he had an opinion letter stating that the 2009 ordinance violated the city, Charter. Interestingly, the opinion letter was rendered by a third-party attorney--not city attorney Charles "Zamboni" Jacobs. (As an aside, one wonders the cost of this research, but that is a question for another day or another public records request.)
Chandler had his Chief Administrative Officer Amanda Nottingham make a presentation on the ordinance. She struggled with her assignment, especially when reminded by Councilman Chris Smith that the city had attempted this year to hire an individual for a non-budgeted position.
In response to a public records request for this opinion letter, Jacobs replied that it was confidential and subject to the attorney-client privilege.
This disingenuous answer ignores an obvious fact that entitles this author to the letter under the Louisiana Public Records Act--that being that it was discussed in an open meeting of the council versus an executive session.
Additionally, this reply undermines the effort by Chandler to get relief from the 2009 hiring ordinance. If the letter is well based in law, why would Chandler want it to be remain secret and not subject to public scrutiny?
Both logic and law dictate the release of this opinion letter.
And in the spirit of transparency, which is a notion foreign to the Chandler administration, the legal fees for the letter should be released along with an explanation why this issue could not have been researched by the two highly paid part-time Bossier City attorneys.