Phila. newspapers seek sunshine from Nutter

A lawyer for The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News yesterday said Mayor Nutter was gutting the state's Sunshine Law by barring the news media from briefings to City Council about budget cuts.

"If Council and the mayor meet whenever they want, with no mechanism for citizens to find out what happened, they have eviscerated the Sunshine Act," said Christopher Casey, a lawyer with Dilworth Paxson, outside counsel for the papers.

Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C. has sought an injunction to prevent future closed-door meetings between Nutter and Council on budget matters.

The Sunshine Law requires government meetings to be conducted in public.

Christopher DiFusco, a deputy city solicitor, said the mayor's meeting on Wednesday with 17 Council members was an informational discussion and not a deliberation over budget cuts.

He added that if the newspapers succeeded in getting an injunction against closing any future budget-related meetings, it would be "extraordinarily broad."

Nutter held a live televised news conference at noon yesterday to present his case for budget cuts to the public. Immediately afterward, the newspapers argued in a brief that the mayor's proposal for Council to pass seven pieces of legislation to enact his cost-saving plan was evidence that the private discussion with Council involved attempts to "frame and prepare" legislative action.

Common Pleas Court Judge Gary F. DiVito was expected to announce his decision today.

Reporters who heard about the Wednesday meeting between the mayor and Council were prevented from entering a conference room at the Municipal Services Building. The mayor's staff called for security, and an armed guard was posted outside the meeting.

Douglas Oliver, a spokesman for the mayor, said having armed security was "unintended."

"We asked for security, and that's who they sent," Oliver said.

Oliver said the Wednesday meeting was a chance for the mayor to give Council members an advance explanation of how he planned to bridge a $1 billion budget gap over the next five years.

"At the end of the day, we continue to be open and transparent," Oliver said.

The meeting Wednesday was the third time Nutter had barred the media from budget briefings with Council. He had taken similar action in May and October.

On Wednesday, Nutter defended his right to meet with Council in private, saying in part: "It's a briefing. There will be no decisions made."

In court, DiFusco said the Wednesday meeting was a "basic briefing on the state of the budget and actions he wants to take."

He added that there were no specific orders or actions.

DiVito commented from the bench, however, that while that might be, "it's difficult to know if you don't know what happened."

Casey said the public must rely on the mayor's representation of what happened behind closed doors - a point of view that could be "self-serving."

He said harm to the public's right to know "continues as long as secret meetings are taking place."