LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Metro Council member Anthony Piagentini is suing the city’s ethics board, claiming the agency has improperly released records in his ethics case and violated Kentucky’s open meetings law.
Those actions, the council member’s lawyers say in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Jefferson Circuit Court, have “eviscerated Piagentini’s expectation to a confidential and fair process.”
Named as defendants in the suit are the Louisville Metro Ethics Commission’s seven members, Metro government, and Kevin E. Fields Sr., the CEO of Louisville Central Community Centers who filed an ethics complaint against Piagentini in March.
Piagentini, a Republican who has represented District 19 in eastern Louisville since 2019, was hired by the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council after he had sponsored a measure to give the group $40 million in American Rescue Plan funding, according to Louisville Public Media’s Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting.
Piagentini didn’t vote on the ordinance but started working for the healthcare council the day after his colleagues approved the funding, KyCIR reported. The news outlet also found that Piagentini was weighing that job offer even as the funding measure was moving through the Metro Council, raising questions about a potential conflict of interest.
Fields, whose organization unsuccessfully sought similar funds, filed a formal ethics complaint after the Metro Council declined to do so.
The lawsuit claims that by providing a copy of Piagentini’s response to Fields’ complaint to Fields, the ethics commission didn’t follow a Metro ordinance that largely requires its records to be kept confidential until a “final determination” is made.
By giving a reporter the same information, the commission or Metro government, which oversees open records requests, also violated city law, the suit says.
The suit further claims that the mayoral-appointed commission or Metro government ran afoul of Kentucky open records law when it provided “information of a personal nature” included in the records that were released. And the suit alleges the commission didn’t give Piagentini enough notice of its meetings as required under city and state law.
Piagentini is asking for a court to order the commission to follow the law.
Fields is named in the lawsuit because he “may have an interest which would be affected by the declaration of rights requested by Piagentini.”
Fields did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday, nor did the ethics commission’s chair, Delores “Dee” Pregliasco.
In addition to the ethics commission’s review, Metro Council has hired an outside attorney to probe Piagentini’s role in the grant.
Copyright 2023 WDRB Media. All rights reserved.
