Mayor: confidential agreement not vetted

Updated: March 13, 2007 06:46 PM
By JOE LaFURGEY

GRAND RAPIDS, MI-- It was just about a year ago when we discovered something big was planned for an area just south of downtown Grand Rapids.The mayor knew about it. But in a story 24 Hour News 8 aired on March 27, 2006, the mayor said he couldn't say much about it. "My city attorney has told me that I'm bound by an agreement not to say anything about this development," George Heartwell said at that time.Fast forward one year. We now know Duane Faust's grand plan along the river has fizzled. But the confidentiality agreement signed by the mayor and two city officials to keep the deal private is keeping the controversy alive. Second Ward City Commissioner Rick Tormala is concerned e-mails between the mayor and local businessman Peter Secchia, which discuss details of the supposedly secret plan, may have violated the agreement and could get the city sued. We also found the mayor, despite his earlier comments, never ran the agreement past the city attorney. The mayor said he thought either City Manager Kurt Kimball or Deputy City Manager Eric DeLong, who also signed the agreement, gave it to the attorney's office for review. Kimball said neither he nor DeLong can recall ever giving it to the attorney."Since it didn't happen, I'm assuming that something fell between the cracks," the mayor told 24 Hour News 8. Tormala wants the city commission to adopt new rules that would require commission approval for any future confidentiality agreement.But the discussion didn't get off the ground at Tuesday's city commission work session. Heartwell adjourned the meeting as Tormala tried to start a discussion on it. The mayor said commission review would make such agreements public, and worthless. As for the lack of review by city attorneys on the last agreement, Heartwell said he's not worried over the lack of oversight."Well, I don't think that's the issue," he said. "We're smart people. We can make those agreements. It would have been a good idea to have it vetted and I thought it was. But that's not the issue." Tormala, who's considering a run against the mayor this fall, said he'll put the idea for new rules on confidentiality agreements on the agenda for the commission's next meeting.

Previous story from 24 Hour News 8:
Tormala mad over RiverGrand e-mails