A judge ruled Wednesday that the City of Fredericksburg followed its own charter when appointing a replacement for the Ward 3 seat on city council earlier this month.
Fredericksburg Circuit Court Judge Gordon Willis made the ruling in response to a petition filed by Guy Gormley, who was one of 14 candidates for the seat vacated by Tim Duffy, who resigned in December for personal reasons.
Willis continued another aspect of the petition filed by Gormley, who is also seeking the release of written notes and other materials related to the interview and appointment process, until Feb. 27 at 10 a.m.
A retired Army colonel, Gormley said that he responded to many Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests over the course of his career.
“From the beginning, this process has seemed extraordinarily closed, which surprised me,” he told the Free Press in an interview last week. “When I submitted my resume, I knew it would become a public record and be scrutinized.”
Gormley said that he didn’t expect to be appointed, and that “I was OK with that until everything became a closed meeting.”
Mayor Kerry Devine announced the names of all 14 applicants for the opening at the Jan. 28 city council meeting. However, council at the direction of its attorney, Kelly Lackey, declined to release the names of the finalists and held interviews on Feb. 4 that were closed to the public.
City officials ultimately made candidates’ resumes available for review at City Hall on Feb. 13, shortly before council unanimously nominated Susanna Finn to fill Duffy’s seat. At the time of her appointment, Finn was serving as chair of the Fredericksburg Planning Commission.
Initially, Gormley filed a FOIA request via email seeking the materials. In a response dated Feb. 11, Clerk of Council Tonya Lacey responded that the requested materials — including “two pages of interview questions and eight pages of handwritten notes” — were exempt as they were created in a closed meeting.
Gormley said he found the city’s stance “insulting and condescending” and, after consulting with a FOIA attorney, decided to file the suit.
“It got to the point where enough was enough,” said Gormley, adding, “I’ve never done anything like this in my entire life.”
Wednesday’s hearing got into the fine points of Virginia’s FOIA laws, which govern which meetings and documents are considered open to the public. Specifically, Gormley’s attorney, Andrew Bodoh, argued that the city’s charter prescribes two different processes for filling a vacancy on a public body.
However, in issuing his ruling to not grant an injunction, Willis ruled that Gormley’s interpretation of the charter was “not correct.”
