The city of Asheville has asked a judge to dismiss Asheville’s Watchdog’s lawsuit alleging violations of the state’s open meetings law following the 2022-2023 holiday water outage.

The city’s motion, filed Monday in Buncombe County Superior Court, did not directly address whether it violated the state’s open meetings law with its Independent Review Committee, which investigated the cause of the failure that left thousands of residents and businesses without water for up to 11 days. The IRC met multiple times over several months, at times with city officials present, and made recommendations to the Asheville City Council, while denying journalists and the public access to the meetings.

The lawsuit, filed by Duke University Law School’s First Amendment Clinic on behalf of The Watchdog and Sunshine Request, an Asheville-based public interest project that publishes results of public records requests, seeks a judgment declaring that the city violated the law and preventing it from creating future similar committees that operate outside public view. 

The city countered that because the IRC no longer exists, any decision would “simply be an advisory opinion as to the validity of the past operations” of the disbanded committee.

“Plaintiffs merely speculate that other, unspecified committees may be formed at some unidentified point in the future,” the city argued. 

“[T]he claimed ‘controversy’ between Plaintiffs and Defendants concerns either alleged actions which occurred in the past, prior to the IRC’s dissolution more than two years ago, or speculative actions Plaintiffs fear Defendants may take in the future, not a present and actual controversy,” said the motion filed by attorneys with the Cranfill Sumner firm in Charlotte. ‘‘Plaintiffs themselves admit that ‘the Independent Review Committee was dissolved upon completion of its work, on or about June 13, 2023.’’’  

The city’s motion also said that The Watchdog and Sunshine Request lack standing.  

“Plaintiffs cannot establish they have suffered an actual or imminent injury capable of redress by a favorable decision, as the IRC has been dissolved for nearly two years, and Plaintiffs merely speculate that other, unspecified committees may be formed at some unidentified point in the future,” its response said.

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Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Andrew R. Jones is a Watchdog investigative reporter. Email arjones@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s local reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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