Dear Editor,
At the Sept. 11 City Council meeting, City Attorney Tom Ryan indicated the following with regard to the matter of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit between the City of the Village of Clarkston and Susan Bisio now in the Michigan Court of Appeals (“No info for you,” Sept. 20):
In fact, there are 18 documents which Mr. Ryan refuses to release to the city.
In fact, Mr. Ryan does not consider himself to be a “public official” of the city but rather an outside attorney employed by the city even though this contradicts the City Charter.
In fact, Mr. Ryan has charged legal fees to the city for the 18 documents he refuses to provide.
In fact, Mr. Ryan has refused to provide documents to the city when requested through FOIA and those documents have not been provided to any of the City Council and staff, past or present.
Therefore, Mr. Ryan has unilaterally withheld information from the city that was part of city related business, paid for with city taxpayer funds and put the city in the Michigan Court of Appeals with the claim that city related information can be withheld from the city council, administration, and taxpayers.
If Mr. Ryan has billed for services that the city has not authorized, which the city cannot see, and dragged the city into a legal battle of his own making, he should not have been paid for those services and should be immediately discharged from his position as city attorney and an administrative officer of the city.
We, as voters, should also take a long hard look at who was on council (Sharron Catallo, Eric Haven, Jason Kniesc, David Marsh, and former members Joe Luginski, Al Avery, Michael Sabol, Tom Hunter) when all of this started and keep that in mind when voting in this November’s election.
Charles and Carrie Inabnit
Robyn and Cory Johnston
Lorry and Stuart Mahler
Chet and Peggy Pardee
Jennifer and John Phyle
Peg Roth
Larry and Pat Shepanek
Tom and Arlene Stone
Clarkston