April 18, 2016 – Legal billing records were sought via email when a City Council report on March 1st showed huge increases in legal expenses of $154,558 in 2012 and $233,868 in 2013.
This is important because during 2012 and 2013, Mayor Gygi and many Cedar Hills Councilmembers – particularly Council member Jenney Rees in her posts and city PR reports – falsely declared that Cedar Hills Citizens for Responsible Government's request for public records was mostly responsible for such high legal bills.
The Council was constantly reminded that, 1.) CHCRG did not have a VOTE on how the City spends its money, and 2.) because the simple fulfillment of the GRAMA requests — which is what the State Records Committee required of the City anyway — was an unnecessary legal expense if GRAMA law had been simply been obeyed.
The following email was sent to Councilman Rob Crawley, and CC'd to City Attorney David Shaw, seeking his help obtaining billing legal records and internal Council investigation….
April 18, 2016
Councilman Crawley,
In looking over the Power-Point slides from the finance presentation by Charl on March 1, 2013 CH Council Meeting, I found this image above. (The file is online and available at http://www.cedarhills.org/sites/default/files/agendas/city-council-agenda-2016-03-01.pdf – was it slide #11?)
The legal fees for 2013 seem exorbitant at $233,868 under then attorney Eric Johnson. No doubt this caught your attention? Can you explain for me the breakdown on legal fee needs that could rack up such high numbers please? More abuse of other CH residents with maligning of character libel by the attorney as with the $154,558 in 2012? Your help understanding this matter would be appreciated.
I've CC'd the current attorney Mr. Shaw, on the chance he may already have that information at hand to save your research time.
Thank you!
Ken Cromar – researcher for
Cedar Hills Citizens for Responsible Government
former elected Cedar Hills Councilman
A response to this request did not come forward. A follow up email reminder was sent July 8, 2016, and requested again via phone yesterday. A response was promised.
Please see February 13, 2013 CHCRG post on the subject reported by Salt Lake Tribune …
"CH lawyer blames his high legal bill on citizen group"
http://www.cedarhillscitizens.org/ch-lawyer-blames-his-high-legal-bill-on-citizen-group/
.