Lawyer advises city to change policy 

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Quick end possible in O'Mara, Shipley civil rights case
Knoxville lawyer's suggestion that The Pit bypass the city manager and get public documents directly from department heads could save Cookeville $500,000 in punitive damages, but only if information is actually provided in its entirety on the same day, and if the same conditions apply to all other media  

          * = sound 

By CHRISTINE GRANT
Putnam Pit  managing editor

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- The attorney representing Cookeville in its second federal civil rights defense in the two years since T. Michael O'Mara and Jim Shipley began calling the shots has made a suggestion that could keep taxpayers' money in their pockets. 

In a letter to Pit editor Geoff Davidian, attorney Robert H. Watson Jr. said  Davidian, and presumably others representing The Putnam Pit, should bypass Shipley and get the information the paper has been denied directly from department heads. 

In a letter to Watson, Davidian said the city's willingness to stop  creating ann impediment to  access to information could be a step toward resolving the lawsuit, but he said that as a condition of settlement the city would have to pay actual damages, legal fees and assure the newspaper the policy would stay im place. 

However, Davidian also said that the offer would be made only once, and unless Watson agreed discovery would begin this week. 

Watson, who also represents the city in another civil rights case arising from allegations former Police Captain Wayne Bandy terrorized other police officers, had not responded as of Sunday night. 

The case was filed March 6, and notice was served on the city, Shipley and O'Mara just after Cookeville Mayor Jean Davis finished her instructions* that Davidian was not to say anything bad about the city council, officials or staff. Davidian  responded by announcing* that while Davis was telling him what he could not speak about Pit Systems Editor Michael Hodges served the city, the city manager and city attorney with federal civil rights complaints claiming first amendment violations. 

Davidian offered to drop the case if the council would simply concede that The Pit was the press for the sake of gaining access to records, but O'Mara blocked that possibility by recommending that no one say anything without consulting legal counsel.