The city of Muncie held a press conference Friday to "clear up miscommunication" after a Star Press article published on Monday headlined, "City won't release details of legal fees."
The Star Press said that the city denied a Freedom of Information Act request about "information about the attorneys hired to defend the city and [Muncie Mayor Dennis] Tyler."
The requests were for information on a lawsuit filed in October by former Muncie Police Chief Stephen Stewart.
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The Star Press reported the request was denied due to "a lack of records about how much the Indianapolis attorneys are being paid as well as attorney-client confidentiality."
"We apologize for the internal miscommunication created earlier this week, however, the City's refusal to release information is inaccurate," Tyler said. "The city has always, and will always, be transparent to its citizens, providing any public information when requested."
When asked how the miscommunication happened, city attorney John Quirk said, "We are still looking into what the issue was and how can we correct it so there isn't any in the future."
Quirk said the typical process for FOIA requests is to give the request to one person in the city to review, then they will send it to the department that needs to respond in order to collect information and make it available.
The Star Press said they have not been provided any of the information requested, but Quirk said that he believed they have.
When the Daily News asked if any other miscommunications have happened with FOIA requests, Quirk said he did not know.
"I am not aware of any other miscommunications," he said. "I'm sure there were miscommunications, you know on a lot of different topics everyday."
Contact Andrew Smith with comments at ajsmith15@bsu.edu or on Twitter at @AndrewSmithNews.
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