Westmoreland County officials violated the state Freedom of Information Act when they held a closed meeting to discuss a contract with a Cincinnati-based counterterrorism training company, a judge ruled last week.
The private meeting in January 2009 preceded a vote to sell a county-owned 25-acre property with a 50,000-square-foot shell building to The O'Gara Group, which owns an adjacent 360-acre facility just off state Route 3 near Montross.
The company is developing a counterterrorism training center that includes live-fire ranges and a high-speed pursuit road course.
Retired Charlottesville Judge Jay T. Swett, appointed to preside over the case in Westmoreland County Circuit Court after local judges recused themselves, did not order fines but said the plaintiffs, some of whom own adjacent properties, are entitled to recover costs and attorneys' fees, estimated by their attorney at $25,000.
"Whenever you find a local government failing to comply with the Freedom of Information Act, it destroys the confidence of citizens in their government," said the attorney, David Bailey of the Richmond-based Environmental Law Group PLLC. "Of course the taxpayers will ultimately pay that amount."
In a written ruling, Swett found the county's action was willfully done, though he found no evidence that members of the Westmoreland Board of Supervisors or the Industrial Development Authority knew the legal consequences of going into a closed meeting without providing information in the minutes.
Swett said neither body acted in a manner that would warrant a civil penalty.
The plaintiffs lost two other cases that challenged county zoning decisions related to the O'Gara facility.
Swett ruled the plaintiffs lacked standing to assert claims for injunctive and declaratory relief.
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