Lawyer Sues to Find Out Age of Mayor
Saying that his request for public documents wasn’t properly satisfied, a Michigan lawyer has sued the city of Warren seeking punitive damages, attorney’s fees and costs.
The suit Arthur Garton filed in Macomb County Circuit Court seeks information including the birth date, address and phone number of Mayor James Fouts, all of which were allegedly redacted without legal authority from documents he requested under the state Freedom of Information Act. However, it appears that he may be zeroing in on Fouts’ birth date in the hope of showing that the mayor submitted an inaccurate affidavit of identity in violation of state law, reports the Daily Tribune.
The mayor has told the city’s legal department to send unredacted documents to Garton. But that doesn’t appear likely to end the suit, which also contends the city didn’t meet FOIA deadlines.
Garton served as campaign adviser to a former city clerk that Fouts defeated in the 2007 mayoral election.
