• About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
Thursday, March 4, 2021
38 °f
Platte
49 ° Sat
54 ° Sun
58 ° Mon
61 ° Tue
The Platte County Landmark Newspaper
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
No Result
View All Result
The Platte County Landmark Newspaper
No Result
View All Result

Platte City won’t appeal court’s Sunshine verdict

Ivan Foley by Ivan Foley
March 10, 2007
in Platte City
4
SHARES
91
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email

No decision means no appeal. At least not yet.

At a special meeting Monday night, Platte City’s Board of Aldermen discussed the possibility of appealing the recent court decision that went against them in the Sunshine Law case brought by Harold Coons.

RelatedNews

City to hire out work for curbs, base repair

Firework sales could be booming this year

The end of an era

No official motions were made and no action taken, after discussion revealed three board members favored pursuing an appeal while three opposed.

The city has until March 12 to appeal the Jan. 31 decision by Platte County Circuit Court Judge Lee Hull. Hull’s ruling pulled the city’s two involuntary annexation questions off a scheduled Feb. 6 ballot.

The board is not scheduled to meet again until March 13, a day past the deadline. Another special meeting could always be called prior to the deadline, but there was no indication this week that another meeting would be planned.

Hull ruled the city violated the state’s open meetings law when the board discussed annexation and annexation boundaries in closed session last September. The judge ordered the city to pay $11,850 to Coons’ attorney, Bob Shaw.

Monday’s meeting featured mayor Dave Brooks’ soliciting comments from each of the six aldermen in regard to their individual feelings toward pursuing an appeal of Hull’s decision. Interestingly, the city’s annexation legal team of Williams and Campo was not present for the meeting.

Shaw, however, was sitting in the audience and several of the aldermen took the chance to be critical of him.

Alderman George McClintock opened the discussion.

“It is my strong belief that we did not in any way, shape or form break any laws. We were following the advice of our attorneys, who are very well-schooled in the Sunshine Law,” McClintock said.

McClintock said he feels a longtime resident, Coons, “was duped” into filing the lawsuit.

“I’m very upset about a person being used in this manner. I’m upset because Bob Shaw disallowed the citizens the right to determine the direction they want to go.

“I think we have good reason to pursue an appeal. We could go ahead and pursue an appeal and continue to look at annexation after the (April election when three board members are up for reelection).

“I don’t like to be on the losing side, particularly when I’m not at fault. But we’re dealing with public money. I’m not sitting here representing George McClintock. I’m representing the people of Platte City,” McClintock said, saying he would not favor an appeal because of the potential cost to the city.

The city’s attorneys estimated their legal fees to appeal the case could run “at least” $20,000, which alderman Kenneth Brown said “tells me it could be $30,000 or more.”

Alderman Bill Knighton said he favors appealing.

“My feeling is we need to appeal. I am not a liar,” Knighton said, not elaborating from where the reference to the word “liar” came.

Alderman Jim Palmer said he favors doing an appeal, citing a city survey that he claims showed 70% of respondents favored annexation.

“It’s our responsibility to take care of the people of Platte City,” Palmer stated.

Brown said he is not in favor of the idea. He was the first alderman to ask city administrator Keith Moody about the estimated legal costs to conduct the appeal. Brown also pointed out an appeal would drag the issue out another 9 or 10 months longer.

“Quite frankly, we need to get beyond this,” he said.

Brown added that spending $20,000 to $30,000 to appeal a judgment of less than $12,000 wouldn’t be good business.

“The cost outweighs the gain,” he noted.

Alderman Lee Roy Van Lew said he is “highly disappointed with the way this turned out. The judge has denied citizens the right to do this and that’s not right. I think we should go with the appeal.”

A little later, Van Lew said: “I hate to admit to being a liar,” without explanation for the use of the word.

“I don’t know that anybody is calling you a liar,” Brown told him.

Van Lew said if the city does not appeal, “Mr. Shaw will be unduly happy. I hope to God it affects him in his business.”

Alderman Aaron Jung opposed the idea of an appeal.

“Once you’ve taken an issue so far and gotten so much negative vibe. .. it’s a lawsuit that we may or may not win.”

The polling left Jung, Brown and McClintock opposed to an appeal, with Palmer, Knighton and Van Lew in favor.

Brooks declined to state an opinion publicly on his feelings about an appeal.

Shaw had a commitment to be in the Barry area later Monday evening and left city hall at the conclusion of the meeting. Reached Tuesday for comment, he said:

“I am very disappointed that some of the aldermen have chosen to make this a personal matter. I do not have any personal animosity to any of the aldermen. I disagree with their annexation policies and the way they have chosen to implement them.”

Shaw said his opposition to the city’s annexation should not have come as a surprise to the city officials.

“Several years ago I promised the mayor and the board of aldermen I would do everything in my power to stop their annexation plans. Now it appears they are upset that I kept my promise,” Shaw added.

Shaw said it would have made no sense for the city to pursue an appeal.

“It was disturbing to see that three members of the board of aldermen were willing to spend $20,000 to $30,000 of taxpayers’ money just to seek personal vindication. I would guess that the citizens of Platte City would prefer to see their money used for roads, parks or some of the city’s other pressing needs.

“Obviously, it makes no economic sense to spend $20,000 to $30,000 of taxpayers’ money to appeal a judgment for $11,000,” Shaw remarked.

Shaw said he is not happy about the way several aldermen have criticized his client Harold Coons, a longtime resident of the city.

“Several aldermen have chosen to insult one of their own citizens. This is particularly disturbing when you consider all that the Coons family has done for the city of Platte City throughout the years,” Shaw said.

Harold Coons’ father, Junior Coons, served as the city’s director of public works for many years. Junior Coons is also a past Truman Glenn Award winner for service to the community.

Land owned by Harold Coons’ father and brother had been targeted in the city’s involuntary annexation proposal and Coons was doing what he could to protect his family’s land, Shaw explained.

 

Tags: electionslawsuitLawsuitsplatte cityplatte countysunshine lawSunshine Laws
Ivan Foley

Ivan Foley

Ivan Foley is owner/editor/publisher of the Platte County Landmark. Foley has been on the news beat in Platte County with The Landmark for 38 years, specializing in local government issues and accountability journalism. He has penned multiple award-winning investigative pieces. He provides weekly observations and editorial commentary in his Between the Lines column and serves as host of Landmark Live, a light-hearted videocast featuring newsmakers and events in the Northland. During his time at the helm of The Landmark, the newspaper has been awarded on multiple occasions for General Excellence in the Missouri Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. In 2016, Foley won the Tom and Pat Gish Award, a national honor given by the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky for displaying courage, tenacity and integrity in rural journalism. A big fan of the Chiefs and Royals, Foley resides in Platte County not far from KCI Airport.

Related Posts

Parkville police car

Criminal activity rises by 16% in Parkville

by Ivan Foley
March 3, 2021
0

Total crimes were up in the City of Parkville for the year 2020, but there's no need for residents to believe the city is unsafe in any way. "Our city is growing," says Kevin Chrisman, chief of the Parkville Police...

Judge James Van Amburg

Judge tells city to produce documents

by Debbie Coleman-Topi
March 3, 2021
0

Discovery items that have been withheld from Maki A Platte County judge took action Monday in an ongoing dispute in which a private citizen is suing the City of Parkville for violations of the state's open meetings and records law,...

Mass vaccination Riverside

Volunteer coordinator to aid local vaccination clinics

by Ivan Foley
March 2, 2021
0

Up to $25,000 in federal CARES dollars will be used to hire a volunteer coordinator for the mass vaccination operations of the Platte County Health Department. Working with the Platte County Emergency Management Organization (EMO), which is an arm of...

45 Years Ago–March 12, 1976

by Ivan Foley
March 1, 2021
0

Robert C. Ham of Parkville recently was presented a watch for 30 years of service at Western Electric and Mrs. Ham was presented a pin in honor of the occasion. The Park Hill Acapella Choir will present their 24th annual...

Next Post

Pocket park in Platte City will have historial theme

Popular News

  • Why the urgency for R-3 bond issue?

    Why the urgency for R-3 bond issue?

    26 shares
    Share 10 Tweet 7
  • Around 1,700 shots to be offered in the next week

    17 shares
    Share 7 Tweet 4
  • City ‘finds’ 2,300 records, gives them to Jason Maki

    16 shares
    Share 6 Tweet 4
  • Attorney general probing Parkville on Sunshine

    10 shares
    Share 4 Tweet 3
  • Investigations, rolling outages and building south

    9 shares
    Share 4 Tweet 2
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
Call us at 816-858-0363

Copyright © 2019-2020 The Platte County Landmark Newspaper - All Rights Reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Subscribe Online
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward

Copyright © 2019-2020 The Platte County Landmark Newspaper - All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist