Arlene Martinez of the Morning Call reports today (read the article here), that "Northampton County Judge Edward Smith denied Nazareth's request to have the case dismissed."
The case is the one brought forward by Bernie O'Hare who "filed a lawsuit in August, alleging council violated the Sunshine Act and ''has engaged in a pattern of using council committees that meet without public advertising or notice to decide matters of public importance.''
O'Hare, himself posted a comment yesterday alerting readers to this outcome and I made a post to bring it to the main page of the site (read the post reporting it here).
Of additional interest in Martinez's story is the disclosure of the amount paid to Furst Architecture for plans for a new government center at Nazareth Hall Park requested by the committee that instigated the lawsuit by failing to announce its meetings and make them open to the public.
Martinez writes: "Nazareth spent $26,000 on now-abandoned plans to move police and administration from 30 Belvidere St. to new offices adjacent to council chambers, secretary-treasurer Paul Kokolus said this week."
While the borough has contracted services with Keller Consulting to serve as Borough Engineer, it would seem that the excessive time given to this project over the summer will have been in excess of a normal year and that as a result there will be costs in addition to this payment as a result of the committee.
Similarly, while I don't know who makes the decision regarding whether or not to comply with the request to have open meetings or face litigation, the choice by the borough to fight in court rather than hold open meetings is also costing the borough money.
It will be interesting to see what the final bill for this committee will be.
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