Eureka Springs city attorney Forrest Jacobi, in a memo to the city council, says discussing litigation against the city at council meetings “will not be in the best interest of the city.”
In the memorandum, dated July 29, Jacobi refers to a letter written by the late Tim Weaver, then the city attorney, in September 2017.
“Tim Weaver strongly advised the City Council from discussing ongoing litigation against the City or even potential litigation against the City,” Jacobi writes. “Any discussion by the City Council of ongoing litigation against the City or even potential litigation against the City only provides information to the people suing the City, which will not be in the best interest of the City.
“The first thing an attorney says to his client being sued is to talk to no one but me about this case and let me do the talking,” Jacobi writes. “That is sound advice.”
Council members with questions about lawsuits or potential lawsuits should direct those inquiries to the mayor’s office, Jacobi writes.
“Should you have any question about a lawsuit or potential lawsuit, the office of the Mayor should be able to inform you of enough details or show you the actual lawsuit proper to satisfy your curiosity,” Jacobi writes. “If there is a legal question involved, I will seek to explain the legal question of the lawsuit or the potential liability of the City.”
Jacobi’s memo comes after council member Autumn Slane attempted to amend the agenda at the council’s July 25 meeting to include discussion of a lawsuit filed by former city employee Danelle Tomarchio in Carroll County Circuit Court. Defendants in that lawsuit are Mayor Butch Berry, finance director Lonnie Clark and human resources coordinator Jerry King, as well as the city itself.
Tomarchio alleges that King repeatedly made remarks of a sexual nature to her and that Berry and Clark did not stop the behavior. She asks for a total of $1 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
“I would like to put Dannelle’s lawsuit on the agenda to talk about what her position is and what her role and what happened,” Slane said at the July 25 council meeting.
Berry responded: “We really can’t discuss that.”
Jacobi then responded that since it’s an ongoing lawsuit, the subject wouldn’t be appropriate to discuss.
“It’s an ongoing lawsuit,” Jacobi said. “And normally you don’t talk about those. It’s between the attorneys and the parties involved. The city will be informed when it’s ready to be resolved or settled.”
“We have a copy [of the lawsuit] at City Hall and you’re more than welcome to look at it,” Berry said to Slane.
Slane later asked, “So how do we know that we are doing everything we can as a city to make sure that these lawsuits are not continuing to happen?”
“Well, we can’t do anything about that,” Jacobi said. “People sue us because they feel like it. It doesn’t mean it has any merits to this suit. It’s just that the city will continue to get sued because that’s what happens. But you can read up on the lawsuit and try to answer your questions.”
— Eureka Springs city attorney Forrest Jacobi
