Metro Council members sued individually by Mary Roper say the former parish attorney’s latest legal action is an annoyance and a distraction, but not much of a concern.
Roper filed identical lawsuits late Wednesday against councilmembers Buddy Amoroso, C. Denise Marcelle, John Delgado, Chandler Loupe and Trae Welch, accusing each of failing to comply with a public records request she made of all 12 council members last August. That request sought thousands of emails, records and documents dating back to August 2008 that could be relevant to her firing. In the individual lawsuits, Roper says the five council members did not fully comply with her request and should be fined $100 per day for every day they do not comply.
“My reaction was like, wow,” says Marcelle. “I’ve never understood what she was getting or where she is coming from. … But I don’t think it has much merit.”
None of those named in the lawsuits was on the council in August 2008. Marcelle, Loupe and Welch were elected that November. Amoroso and Delgado were not elected until 2012.
“Why would she ask for documents when none of us were even on the council at that time?” wonders Welch, adding that he believes his office complied with Roper’s initial public records request. “It just gives credence to her not being the parish attorney anymore.”
Delgado, a practicing attorney, says he doesn’t think council members are legally obligated to turn over private correspondences and records from a time when they were private citizens.
“I don’t see how any emails that existed prior to January 2013 would be in any way admissible either, or subject to the public records lawsuit,” he says.
Amoroso says he will do whatever his attorney advises, though he is confident that will not include turning over records from before he was a council member.
“This is absolutely getting tiresome,” he says. “When she does things like this it makes me feel better about how I voted for her to leave the office.”
The council voted to dismiss Roper at a contentious special hearing in September. On Wednesday, the council voted to increase from $17,500 to $50,000 the cap on a contract with attorney Murphy Foster III to represent it in its legal battles with Roper. —Stephanie Riegel
