Current investigation sparked by anonymous message sent to Commissioner's personal email account

Apr. 26—A series of information requests have recently been submitted to the City of Richmond — by several media outlets — regarding the internal investigation being conducted by Vaughn Petitt Legal Group, PLLC.

And recent responses from the city attorney have gleaned new insights into the situation.

In response to a recent request made by The Register specifically asking for the original complaint that spurred the investigation, City Attorney Tyler Frazier asserted the investigation was not prompted by an official complaint made through the city.

He wrote, "Per City policy, found on page 32 of the employee handbook, all complaints by employees are to be reduced in writing and signed by the complaining employee or the person receiving the complaint from an employee. This requirement of a signature is there to lend veracity to a complaint, as there is someone to stand behind the complaint and be questioned regarding its contents."

"Here no such complaint has been filed."

Instead, the city attorney referenced an anonymous e-mail sent to a City Commissioner's private email address by an anonymous author claiming to be a City employee.

While the attorney argued that this is not an official complaint, Vaughn Petitt Legal Group has been contracted to investigate this anonymous allegation for the firm's discounted rates for government clients. Their prices per hour range from $50 per hour for law clerk time to $185 per hour for partner time.

In the same correspondence, Frazier claimed that the anonymous e-mail was exempt from the information request because "The email does not originate from a City email address, nor does it exist in the City email or network system. The City does not have access to private emails of commissioners or employees."

The attorney then went on to claim further exemption because "even if the email is, in fact, a public document by virtue of being sent to an elected official, it would undoubt[e]ably be covered by KRS 61.878(1)(i) as it is correspondence with a private individual which was made with the expectation of confidentiality, as evidenced by its providence."

Commissioner Mike Brewer explained that commissioners do get messages on their personal devices, however he noted that he does not condone the gatekeeping of city business.

"Everybody [Commissioners] probably gets text messages or emails on their personal phones. Anything that's city business should come through your city phone, but it doesn't mean that it always does," he said.

Brewer commented that he had not heard of the email nor was made aware of its contents before the Commission went into a 45-minute executive session on March 7.

Even then, he said, the attorney obtained by the city, Carol Petitt, read it aloud.

This is echoed in a statement from the city attorney that reads, in part, "the contents of the [e]mail are only known to the City and Records Custodian because it was read aloud."

Minutes obtained from the special called meeting showed that Commissioner Mendi Goble introduced the motion during executive session for Mayor Robert Blythe to investigate the internal personnel matter.

It was seconded by Commissioner Jim Newby before being unanimously approved by the Commission.

No transcript or further documentation was provided by the City in response to the Register's requests for information about the investigation.

"When this investigation is over, I'm going to request open records ... that would indicate why I didn't get a copy of this anonymous email, so I want to know who knew and who kept it from me first," Brewer promised.

The only other comment received from a commissioner on the update was from Tammy Cole, who commented, "My hope is that things will be wrapped up very soon. In the meantime, I cannot do anything to jeopardize an ongoing investigation."

In following up with Richmond City Commissioners, none of them have been able to confirm who received the original e-mail.