SANDPOINT — The City Council voted unanimously last week to release a third-party legal opinion that stated Fonda Jovick was still the appointed city attorney.

The special meeting, held Wednesday, Oct. 22, to discuss the release, was requested by Councilor Kyle Schreiber. In asking for the document’s release, Schreiber said he felt it would be a step toward transparency. 

“I just wanted to thank everybody for considering this,” Schreiber said. “I think releasing this document will go a long way to give transparency to the public about what transpired and how we came to the decision we came to.” 

The decision that Schreiber is referring to is the council’s unanimous approval of a resolution that maintained Lake City Law as the city's legal counsel and Jovick as city attorney Oct. 8. That approval resolved a week-long dispute between the council and Mayor Jeremy Grimm, who contested that the city’s contract with Lake City Law had expired, and that Jovick was no longer the city attorney. 

Grimm said at that Oct. 8 meeting that city staff and himself could not find documentation of Jovick being sworn into her appointed position, further creating a lack of clarity in the agreement. 

Once the document was released, Jovick said she contacted a third-party law firm to write the opinion as an agent of the city because both herself and Harrington had a financial interest in the outcome. 

The opinion was developed by Susan Weeks, of Coeur d’Alene based law firm James, Vernon and Weeks and stated there was no vacancy created by the irregularity of taking an oath or in the contract’s conclusion. 

“While attorneys are professionally required to set forth the terms of representation; such terms do not alter or displace the statutory process governing the appointment and removal of a city attorney,” Weeks wrote of the contract’s expiration in the opinion. 

Weeks wrote in the opinion that the city should take action to correct the irregularity in taking the oath of office “at its first opportunity.” Grimm said at the council’s Oct. 15 meeting that Jovick would be sworn in following that meeting’s conclusion. 

During the meeting, Councilor Rick Howarth questioned why the council was voting to release one legal opinion and not the others. Jovick said that the legal opinion that supported the mayor’s decision to appoint William Harrington as the city’s legal representation was already published in the Sandpoint Reader. 

Howarth said it was his understanding that there were three legal opinions developed and that all of them should be released. Ruehle encouraged Howarth to bring a vote on that third opinion at a future meeting. 

"If we are trying to be transparent with the public, I think we would want to release all the information to the public,” Howarth said. “If Mr. Harrington’s has already been released, great, I understand it, but we ought to think about releasing the other document as well.” 

The full legal opinion has been obtained by The Daily Bee and has been attached to the bottom of the story online. Sandpoint City Council’s next scheduled meeting is on Nov. 5 at 5:30 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall.