From the Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 21, 2019.
A Richmond judge this week sided against Mayor Levar Stoney for a second time in the mayor’s effort to withhold documents related to a proposal that would use property tax revenue to pay for downtown development that includes replacing the Richmond Coliseum.
Paul Goldman, a lawyer and former chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said he now has the records he wanted from Freedom of Information Act requests he made to the city in May.
Richmond Circuit Judge Melvin Hughes on May 29 ordered Stoney to turn over the records; in June, Stoney filed court papers challenging the ruling and asking the judge to reconsider so the city could file an appeal with the Supreme Court of Virginia.
Melvin signed an order Thursday denying Stoney’s request.
“Courts labor under burdens, and judicial economy dictates that litigants have one, and only one, fair opportunity to argue legal issues,” the judge’s order said.
Stoney, through the city attorney’s office, argued that releasing some of the records related to NH District Corp., a private group that wants to do the development, would adversely affect the city’s bargaining position. Goldman said the city didn’t have any evidence to make that case, though.
The city wanted to charge Goldman more than $2,000 for a second FOIA request, even though it had charged the Richmond Times-Dispatch much less for the same records. State law allows government agencies to charge for the costs of responding to a FOIA request, including the time it takes for attorneys to review and redact records, even though those attorneys are already paid with public dollars.
Goldman ended up paying $250 for his FOIA requests. He said he’s close to gathering enough signatures to put the redevelopment plan on the ballot for voters to decide this November.
“I want to give people a chance to vote on the Coliseum project,” he said. “It will give people a chance essentially to say that they don’t want to do this kind of financing.”
In 2017, Goldman successfully led an effort get a resolution on the ballot for Richmond voters related to schools. Voters passed the resolution, which called on Stoney to create a plan to modernize city schools without raising taxes or say that such a plan is not feasible.
NH District, a group of investors led by Dominion Energy CEO Tom Farrell II, in June 2017 publicly revealed its desire to redevelop the Coliseum and an area around it, including public property and the historic Blues Armory.
In November 2017, Stoney announced a city request for proposals to redevelop the area; Farrell’s group was the only entity to submit a proposal.
The investors want the city to commit millions in property taxes toward the project through a mechanism called “tax-increment financing” that would set aside any new property tax revenue in the surrounding area.
Officials in the Stoney administration have said they are continuing to negotiate a deal and have declined to release the proposal.
Asked by email Friday if the mayor wishes he’d simply turned over the records to Goldman, Stoney spokesman Jim Nolan said the mayor had no regrets.
“The city continues to evaluate its position in consultation with the city attorney and will determine what, if any, additional actions are necessary to protect its legal interests both in the present case and with respect to future matters,” Nolan said in an email.