The following story comes from the Crossville Chronicle.  It concerns the City of Crossville paying an outside law firm $10,000 to investigate the Village Inn, back where there was a Village Inn.  Heather Mullinix, a very professional journalist, filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Chronicle to force the City to release that report to the public. I have been in the business of news gathering and reporting for more than 50 years in Crossville.  I can attest there is no true transparency in City and County government nor any government for that matter. It goes against the “stay elected” rule.  The following story demonstrates that fact very clearly. The comments in italics are from CNF:

The Crossville Chronicle-Cheryl Duncan, March 11, 2024

The argument that Crossville City Council violated the state’s Open Records Act by openly discussing an independent investigation report into the 2022 brief closure of the former Village Inn has been rejected in Cumberland County Chancery Court.

Chancellor Ronald Thurman signed the final order March 5 closing the lawsuit that former Crossville Chronicle Editor Heather Mullinix, acting on the newspaper’s behalf, filed against city officials following their refusal to release the report. She filed the suit in June 2023 through the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press on the Chronicle’s behalf.

“The Crossville Chronicle has always held the public’s right to know what our government officials are doing, or has done, in high regard,” said Mullinix, who continued to pursue the matter even after leaving the newspaper in late January. 

“That’s why myself and the Chronicle sought the release of the report discussed in multiple public meetings.”

Mullinix’s lawsuit sought the release of a final report by the Chattanooga law firm of Robinson, Smith and Wills, which the city retained for $10,000 to conduct an independent investigation on the former-motel-turned-low-income-housing complex that sat adjacent to Crossville City Hall on Main St.

More than 130 residents were displaced when Crossville police, fire and codes enforcement shut down the Village Inn on July 27, 2022, citing numerous health and safety violations. The complex reopened the next day. The Chronicle reported a press release that the city did not distribute said the closure had been lifted “as a result of improper procedural issues.” (The City broke the law: You can’t arbitrarily evict people from their residences without a court order – which the City did not have. City Attorney at the time Will Ridley, who did not know about the surprise eviction, called the City the next day and said “get those people back in their quarters”.)

Among the meetings in which the report was referenced was an August 2022 session during which City Council members deliberated on whether to reinstate City Manager Greg Wood. Wood had been suspended days after the Village Inn closure at the advice of then-City Attorney Will Ridley. Wood then tendered his resignation and rescinded it eight days later.  (Wood’s suspension was because he was the ‘head’ of the City and approved the eviction) 

In those discussions, some council members cited the report in a motion to dismiss Wood, while others said the report supported keeping Wood in his position. He was eventually reinstated by a 3-2 vote.

In early 2023, council members followed the advice of City Attorney Randy York, who asserted the report is privileged communications between the council and the law firm that prepared it.  (The law firm investigation was paid for by taxpayer money – therefore taxpayers fully expected to hear what the report said.)

City officials denied Mullinix’s public records request for the report in September 2022. She filed suit on the Chronicle’s behalf through the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in June 2023. 

“I talked with many city residents in the aftermath of the Village Inn closure,” Mullinix said. “So many felt there was more the public needed to know about what happened. I felt it was important to seek those answers. As the council continued to discuss the closure, and the report as it related to City Manager Greg Wood, I believed, and open government advocates agreed, that the council had waived its attorney-client privilege.”

She added, “Unfortunately, when a public record custodian denies a records request, the only option left is to file a lawsuit. I appreciate the court taking the time to consider the arguments and review the record.”

Thurman examined the report privately in February before issuing his final order.

“The Court finds that there was not enough said in the public meetings, including but not limited to as compared to the content of the report the Court reviewed under seal, that caused the privilege to be waived,” he wrote. 

The chancellor added that the statements made in meetings “do not sufficiently include what is actually contained in the report, to constitute a waiver.” 

Both Mullinix and Chronicle Publisher Bill Atkinson expressed their appreciation to the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press and its attorney, Paul McAdoo of Brentwood, for taking on the case with the Chronicle.

“While it’s a bad decision on the court and we could have appealed it, the appeal stands a chance of creating bad law,” Atkinson said. 

“We do not feel it’s worth that chance,” he added. “We’ll let the decision stay with the local government and the Chancery Court.”

It’s not city officials’ last day in court regarding the Village Inn. Overton County attorney John B. Nisbit III is representing 11 former Village Inn residents in a wrongful conviction class-action lawsuit in federal court. The lawsuit also names a number of Crossville police, fire and codes enforcement employees in their official and individual capacities.

“My hope is that, once the city concludes litigation with the displaced residents, the report can be fully released to the public,” Mullinix said. 

“The report no doubt has lessons that everyone involved can learn from so that the mistakes of the past are not repeated. And, the citizens of Crossville need to be informed of what went wrong.”

(There is a reason the City does not want the law firm’s report made public.  I suspect it puts some local officials in a bad light and indicates the City broke the law by evicting the residents of the Village Inn, and the City does not want that.)