Aetna MountainA judge has ruled that the five emails alleged by a group of residents to contain a record of the Industrial Development Board’s hidden deliberations may remain secret because they deal with legal issues.
His ruling is seen by some as a new, more restrictive interpretation of state open records laws, which have allowed disclosure in similar cases.
The handful of hidden records that allegedly reveal the rationale for $9 million in taxpayer financing to a subdivision developer may remain private under the attorney-client privilege rule, wrote Chancellor W. Frank Brown in an 11-page ruling.
“The disclosure of [City Attorney Mike] McMahan’s communications to the members of the [Industrial Development Board of the city of Chattanooga] would clearly reveal the substance of the client’s confidential communications,” Brown wrote.
But his ruling misses the point of an open-records law, said Helen Burns Sharp, who filed a lawsuit to reveal information that she says would explain why $9 million in financing was granted to York Capital to build a road up Aetna Mountain.