The legal fees vote
FACT: Per the official minutes, the council took up “reimbursement of legal fees to Council Member Robert Fitzgerald in the pending cause brought against him and the City by Michael Bachand.” The vote tied 2 to 2, with Council Members Turner and Griffith opposed and Fitzgerald recused. Mayor L. Kelly Jones cast the tie-breaking vote in favor. It passed 3 to 2.
FACT: A correction to that record. “Against him and the City” is the city’s own characterization in its minutes, and the court file does not support it. The caption of the petition in Cause No. 348-377803-26 reads “MICHAEL BACHAND, Plaintiff/Contestant, v. ROBERT FITZGERALD, Defendant/Contestee.” The City of Westworth Village is not a named party anywhere in the petition. The city’s only exposure in the case is the cost of administering a new election if the contest succeeds.
FACT: The written legal opinion later produced to justify this vote, the Westfall opinion, itself concedes the city “is prohibited from defending a candidate’s title to office.” The full analysis of what the opinion does and does not cover is on Misuse of Public Funds.
OPINION: The minutes’ wording inflates the city’s stake in the lawsuit. That matters, because “the city is a party” became the entire public justification for the payment. The suit names one defendant, and he is not the city.
The board appointments, same night
FACT: Per the minutes, the council made its board appointments that night: Michael Bachand, Brad Turner, and Anita Gray came off the Planning & Zoning Commission, replaced by Aaron Feldman, Russell Laughlin, and Gary Fitzjarrell for terms ending May 2028. The vote was 4 to 0 with Fitzgerald abstaining. Changes to the WRA, CCPD, and Finance/Long-Range Planning committees were made the same night.
FACT: Two of the three replaced had just been on the May 2 ballot. Turner had won a council seat (a natural reason to leave P&Z), and Bachand had lost his council race by 2 votes and is the plaintiff in the election contest the council had just voted to fund the defense of.
FACT: These appointments didn’t end the roster changes. Three weeks later, at the July 14 regular meeting, three more sitting commissioners, including the commission’s chair, were removed mid-term. Our notes on July 14. Between the two meetings, six of the commission’s seven seats changed hands.
SPECULATION: Replacing the plaintiff in a pending suit on a city commission, the same night the city votes to fund the other side’s legal fees, looks like retaliation. We can’t see inside anyone’s head, and we label this as our reading of the record. But the record is what it is, and it’s linked above so you can read it yourself.
Also that night
FACT: Mayor Jones attended remotely, and Phillip Poole was appointed Mayor Pro Tem. The executive session listed the Fitzgerald litigation and board appointments.