City County Council Sues For ROC Documents

A lawsuit has been filed against the city to produce documents for an investigation into the closed Regional Operations Center.

The City County Council Clerk filed a suit, Tuesday, with the Marion County Circuit Court.  The city has about three weeks to respond.

"These aren't documents that should be difficult to locate," said Council Lawyer Andy Mallon.  "There is really no need to drag this process out."

The City County Council voted 15-14 earlier this month to move the lawsuit forward.

Members of the Regional Operations Center investigative committee tasked with figuring out why the city entered into a long term agreement for the ROC say they can’t do their job without the documents.

"Don't know what they contain.  That's why we want to look at them," said Mallon.  "Some information has been brought to light about the deal itself and so, the council's intent is to look at the documentation that surrounded the deal and  correspondence to kind of recreate what happened because the council wasn't necessarily part of those negotiations and lacks the understanding of what happened."

He says there are about 30 items in question.  

The ROC opened before the Super Bowl in 2012.  The city entered into a 25-year, $18 million contract for the east side facility. It closed last year due to unsafe work conditions.

Mayor Greg Ballard’s Spokesman Marc Lotter said,  “This is nothing more than a political sham.  The Council is seeking documents like loan papers that don’t involve the city and a memo that would be in their own Council office.  At least twice attorneys for the City and property owner tried to testify to the Committee to answer questions about the documents, but they were denied the chance to speak.  The City even had an agreement a few weeks ago with Council President Lewis to provide another update and avoid the lawsuit, but members of her own party rejected her deal and went ahead with the lawsuit, wasting taxpayer money.  It is sadly clear that Council Democrats are not interested in facts, just a political show.”

See the court document.