City attorney explains reason for withholding some of mayor’s emails from public records request

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - The City of Lake Charles said the mayor’s emails withheld from a recent public records request are legally exempt from public record.

City Attorney David Morgan said the emails are either personal or are between Mayor Nic Hunter and one of the city’s attorneys, thus making them subject to attorney-client privilege.

Natalie McLendon, a journalist with the statewide news website Louisiana Illuminator, requested all of Mayor Hunter’s emails from April 10 through April 12 of this year. The Illuminator only received 1,168 of 1,466 total pages of emails.

Last month, the Illuminator filed a lawsuit, claiming the city violated public records law by “wholesale” refusing to turn over some emails.

“[The city] did not attempt to redact or segregate any non-exempt information and instead relied upon a blanket exemption for hundreds of pages,“ reads the lawsuit, filed by the Tulane First Amendment Law Clinic on behalf of the Illuminator.

“Of the over 1,400 pages of records reviewed, approximately 260 were withheld from production because they were either Mayor Hunter’s personal communications, e.g., children’s school related emails or funeral arrangements, or communications between the Mayor and the City Attorney and/or Assistant City Attorney, both of which are not considered public records,” Morgan said in a statement to KPLC.

Morgan added that all emails withheld because of attorney-client privilege were between Hunter and a city attorney.

Morgan also responded to the lawsuit’s claim that the city’s fees for providing public records digitally are unreasonable.

At the time of McLendon’s request, the city’s website showed a charge of 50 cents per digital page, plus $25 per DVD.

While that was the price listed, the city has not historically charged that much for digital copies, and the fee schedule has since been updated, Morgan said.

Where it once read 50 cents per page, the fee schedule on the city’s website now shows $35 per jump drive.

McLendon paid $305 for 1,168 printed pages. Morgan said she did not request digital copies of the emails.

Morgan said the city is prepared to defend itself in the lawsuit and is willing to turn over all remaining documents for the court to examine and determine whether they are exempt from public record.