Inquirer, Daily News sue to open Nutter-Council talks

The owner of The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News sued Mayor Nutter and City Council President Anna C. Verna yesterday, alleging that reporters were illegally barred from a meeting at which the mayor discussed proposed budget cuts with Council members.

Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C. asked for an emergency order in Common Pleas Court minutes after reporters for both papers were kept from the meeting between Nutter and Council's 17 members at the Municipal Services Building.

Judge Gary F. DiVito set a hearing for this morning on the injunction request.

At issue are secret meetings between Nutter and a Council quorum since at least Oct. 23 on how the administration will address a five-year budget deficit.

Nutter previously released City Solicitor Shelley R. Smith's opinion that the meetings were legal under Pennsylvania's open-meetings law.

Smith said the Sunshine Law does not cover a budget briefing because no official action is taken.

"This is a briefing to explain cuts," she said. "Council can't force the mayor to spend money. It can only appropriate line items."

Smith called the briefing a courtesy to Council members: "We all have to coexist. They'll . . . have to field inquiries from constituents. It's only reasonable for us to give them a heads-up."

The private meetings are a change for Nutter, who made government openness and transparency keys of his campaign and inaugural address.

The Sunshine Law, which requires government meetings be conducted in public, has led to periodic fights between municipal officials and the public and media.

The law permits municipal officials to meet privately on such issues as personnel and contract talks. Votes and policy decisions are to be public.

Nutter yesterday defended his right to meet with Council in private.

"It's a briefing. There will be no decisions made. We have to update the Council on the current financial crisis, and there are personnel matters we have to discuss as well," Nutter said.

Several Council members echoed his view.

Verna said she relied on the solicitor's opinion that the meetings are legal: "We're being told it is by the city solicitor. It's a briefing."

"I'll take the mayor's lead on this," Councilman Frank DiCicco said.

Others were skeptical.

"I believe that both mayor and City Council have an obligation to the public to have these discussions in the open," said Zack Stalberg, president of the watchdog group Committee of Seventy. "This is especially true of a mayor who ran as the transparency guy."

Terry Mutchler, executive director of the newly formed Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, yesterday acknowledged the exceptions in the Sunshine Law.

"This may be technically allowed, but if you're just going to be distributing information, why not hold it in public?" Mutchler asked.

Stalberg, a former editor of the Daily News, described the secret meetings as a high-stakes political gambit in which Nutter is trying to persuade Council to agree with what are likely to be unpopular spending cuts.

"Does the public get to hear what actions are going to be taken, and what the real concerns are?" Stalberg asked. "To me, it's an issue of right and wrong. It's not a legal matter. It's whether the public is entitled to be in this discussion."