Three Heroic Councilmen vote in NEW city attorney services – Hillary Pt 3

Written By: admin - May• 08•15

Request for Quotes (RFQ) resulted in six applicants for CH Attorney position.  Thank you.

  • Doug Ahlstrom
  • Stirba & Associates
  • Smith Hartvigsen
  • Heideman & Associates
  • Callister Nebeker & McCullough
  • Kirton & McConkie


NEW legal Counsel Kirton & McConkie wins majority of Council’s confidence

 

CONGRATULATIONS!

APRIL 21, 2015  –  For weeks City Councilmen Trent Augustus, Rob Crawley and Mike Geddes have been trying to take the City Attorney position out to open bid via RFQ – or “request for quotes” opening up the position to the possibility of new legal service approaches.

For weeks Mayor Gary Gygi, with political partner Council member Jenney Rees, have vocally fought and delayed their efforts to get the attorney RFQ on the Agenda.

 

Three votes win! According to Utah Code, with a five-member City Council, any two can force an item onto a City Council Agenda for discussion with or without the Mayor’s support.  Additionally, three Council member votes is all that is required to pass any agenda item.

These three fearless Council members had expressed great displeasure with what they saw as an abuse of power by the Mayor with a complicit city attorney Eric Johnson following his instructions, often seen as working together against the Council, city staff and citizens of Cedar Hills.

Leave no document trail. One of their many concerns was the fact, admitted by Mayor Gygi in Council meeting exchanges on the record, his unwillingness to document his position in writing on various items in emails (which are also public records), instead preferring to make himself available for “visits” in his office which would be off the record.

The Council members politely explained that they had learned through experience that they could not rely on the accuracy of the Mayor’s memory or portrayal of the details of those visits when communicated to others.  To date, the Mayor continues to avoid correspondence on substantive issues and his position on those issues.

Abuse of Power by Mayor Gygi & former attorney? The three Council members Augustus, Crawley and Geddes also expressed their displeasure with the Mayor’s use of the City Attorney as though his own against the Council and Cedar Hills residents.  The three also felt some of the legal advise was, given in a February 18, 2014 City Council Work Session, suspect in a number of areas including:

 

AUDIO CLIP #1

Attorney Eric Johnson admitted strategy to withhold public email by creating “attorney client privilege”:

Attny Johnson -Council Work Session 18Feb2014.15.00

 

AUDIO CLIP #2

Attorney Eric Johnson recommends “allegiances and alliances here” to the Mayor and each other, over allegiance the Cedar Hills citizens:

city-council-ws-audio-2014-02-18

(This is the entire Work Session recording, but quote reference starts at 24:10)


 Augustus, Crawley and Geddes prevailed and the city attorney position finally went out as an RFQ to the public.  The city received six quality applicants; including five law firms and one individual attorney.  Longtime CH City Attorney Eric Johnson had filed an application but then retracted it, citing reasons in an undisclosed letter to the Council that reportedly complained about how his family had endured “persecution”.

CHCRG believes that the City Attorney Eric Johnson has too often been errant and misleading in much of his legal counsel to the Mayor and City Council.  With regard to the attorney’s perceived “persecution”, the facts show the exact opposite.

It has been the city attorney Johnson who has belligerent with, and defamed and maligned CHCRG and it’s members efforts to obtain the public email and communication records via the legal and lawful GRAMA request process.  He did so with the fabrication of questionable documents, press releases, and harassment, admittedly under the direction of Mayor Gary Gygi and was paid handsomely above and beyond his $2000 monthly retainer to do so.  These so-called “services” have resulted in known legal service billings costing Cedar Hills taxpayers approximately $250,000 over the last five years, possibly much more.

Some have expressed sadness that the Council would consider new legal counsel instead of Johnson.  Based on Johnson’s own public comments about serving as legal counsel to 200 Utah cities and towns, retaining 199 municipal clients should not adversely affect his finances too much.


CHCRG requests an Honesty AFFIDAVIT signed by outgoing attorney

We trust that the City Council will require Mayor Gygi secure an a signed and notarized Affidavit, sworn under penalty of perjury, from the out-going City Attorney Eric Johnson, before he can collect his final check.  This Affidavit should include, but not be limited to a sworn declaration that he has returned ALL city documents, files, notes, communication that are property of the City of Cedar Hills, etc., and a declaration that he did not destroy or conceal any City records or break the law at any time during his 10+ year tenure as Cedar Hills City attorney.

 

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Related Notes:

Run, Hillary Run for Mayor of CH part 3  — local similarities to national news

Hillary Clinton, who served 4 years as US Secretary of State under President Obama admitted destroying 32,000 records when she left office.  She decided for herself they were personal records and “not related” in any way to public records.  How convenient.  Similarly, our recent GRAMA request (see previous CHCRG post) for the Mayor Gary Gygi’s email records was reportedly determined by Mayor Gygi himself, when city policy required the requested records already be in the possession of City Recorder Colleen Mulvey so she, as the State trained certified Records Officer can fulfill GRAMA requests for public records.  Despite numerous written requests to the Mayor for explanation, he hid behind attorney Johnson and has yet to reply.

Hillary’s record destruction and complete control on her own private server in her home has understandably created suspicion.

According to one of many national news reports, the Secretary of State was required to sign Form OF-109 declaring honesty, under penalty of perjury, regarding US public documents:

Upon affixing his signature to this form, the outgoing official certifies under penalty of law that he has “surrendered to responsible officials all unclassified documents and papers relating to the official business of the government acquired by me while in the employ of the (State) Department.”

There’s even a warning to that effect in the Records Management Handbook:  Fines, imprisonment or both may be imposed for the willful and unlawful removal or destruction of records as stated in the U.S. Criminal Code.

In short, that is the law, which Clinton swore to uphold as secretary of state.

Coffin concludes by noting:  If Clinton signed Form OF-109, she should be prosecuted. If she didn’t, we need to know why not and who granted her that waiver. We don’t need a felon running for president.

 

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