City attorney David L. Morgan said his office looks forward to addressing a public records request in court filed recently by the Tulane First Amendment Clinic on behalf of the Louisiana Illuminator.

The lawsuit states that more than 300 pages of public records containing Mayor Nic Hunter’s emails from April 10-12 were withheld from freelance journalist Natalie McLendon, who filed a public record request on May 13. The Illuminator said in an article that the records were for a future story regarding the city’s budget.

Additionally, the city did not respond to the request within five business days — as required by Louisiana’s Public Records Act — and overcharged for electronic copies of the documents, the lawsuit claims.

On Friday, Morgan wrote in a statement to the American Press that city personnel make “every effort” to comply with the requirements of the Public Records Law to “ensure transparency in government and the public’s right to view public documents.”

“This lawsuit marks the first lawsuit filed against the city from a media outlet regarding public records during the seven and a half years of Mayor Hunter’s administration,” Morgan said.

Morgan said his office received McLendon’s request on May 13 seeking all communications received by or sent from Hunter from April 10-12, which was to include emails and text messages.

“The request did not mention a specific topic of interest,” Morgan said.

He said the city’s public information officer, Katie Harrington, contacted McLendon by telephone to confirm receipt of the request and to ask her if the request could be narrowed to a topic or topics of communication being sought.

When told that McLendon could not narrow her request, Hunter provided city-related text messages from his personal phone, Morgan said.

“Beyond this, Mayor Hunter was not involved in the gathering or reviewing of documents in response to the records request,” Morgan said. “Mayor Hunter played no role in determining which records would be produced or withheld and was not consulted on what would or would not be produced. These decisions were made by the City Attorney’s Office.”

Morgan said the city’s IT department provided more than 1,400 pages of records to the City Attorney’s Office on May 21. He said McLendon was then contacted and notified of an estimated 1,000 pages of records and pre-payment for the requested copies was requested.

Morgan said a review of the documents was made to determine if the documents were in fact “public records” as defined by Louisiana law. That review was completed on May 27.

“Of the over 1,400 pages of records reviewed, approximately 260 pages were withheld from production because they were either Mayor Hunter’s personal communications, e.g. school-related emails of funeral arrangements or communications between the mayor and the city attorney and/or assistant city attorney, both of which are not considered public records,” Morgan wrote.

He said the city is prepared to defend the lawsuit and will produce all remaining documents deemed not public record to the court for inspection.

Regarding the fees for the copies, Morgan said the fee is 50 cents for the first 50 pages and 25 cents for each page after that.

“This fee schedule is in line with what other government agencies in the state of Louisiana charge,” Morgan said.