Labor union says it’s filing FOIA suit over secretive Petersburg casino process

A hospitality workers’ union trying to ensure Petersburg picks a labor-friendly developer for its planned casino says it will sue the city over alleged transparency violations after the City Council appeared to make major decisions on the casino project behind closed doors.

Unite Here, a union that represents casino workers across the country, announced Tuesday that it will file a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Petersburg City Council over its surprise decision to cancel a competitive bidding process and give the casino project to The Cordish Companies, a development company based in Baltimore.

That vote occurred in a matter of minutes at an April 24 meeting after the City Council spent more than an hour and a half in closed session. The stated purpose of the closed meeting was for the council to receive legal advice related to the casino process, but Unite Here alleges the meeting was illegal because the public was given no notice of the significant decision that was made that day almost entirely outside of public view.

In its brief open session on April 24, the Petersburg City Council canceled a request for proposals it had issued on Feb. 12 and voted to select Cordish as the city’s casino operator, without reading or providing copies of the resolution the body was passing. Council members then left the meeting without explaining what they had just done to the few reporters that attended the meeting in a mostly empty auditorium.

“The City of Petersburg’s actions show a shocking disregard for the law and democratic norms,” Sam Epps, political director of Unite Here Local 25, said in a news release. “Petersburg had begun a competitive RFP process that should have proceeded with transparency and fairness. Instead, City Council apparently abused a closed session to discuss the selection of the casino operator.”

The union said its lawsuit will allege that the council used the closed session to discuss the recommendations of a consulting firm the city hired to vet proposals, a discussion that the suit will claim didn’t align with the legally required motion stating the purpose of the closed meeting.

“A billion-dollar development project cannot be decided in secrecy,” said Paul Schwalb, executive secretary-treasurer of Unite Here Local 25.

If the union’s lawsuit succeeds, it could have ramifications beyond technical violations of open government laws.

In a six-page letter the union sent to Petersburg officials asking them to preserve all documents relevant to the upcoming litigation, a lawyer for Unite Here said any decisions made at the April 24 meeting are “clearly void.” 

Because of that, the letter states, the city should not move forward with its casino plans by signing a contract with Cordish or beginning the process of scheduling a voter referendum in November that will determine whether the project will or won’t happen.

The union’s letter also takes issue with the council’s decision to “rescind” a previous letter naming Bally’s Corporation as Petersburg’s preferred casino operator. 

The Bally’s letter has stoked controversy at the General Assembly after the Petersburg City Council alleged it was only issued after Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, told the city it had to sign a document naming Bally’s in order for the legislature to pass a bill giving Petersburg permission to have a casino. Aird has disputed that characterization but has not laid out her own explanation for why the letter was drafted and her alleged role in it.

Unite Here had a labor agreement in place with Bally’s, and the union’s efforts to file a legal challenge over the way the project was awarded to Cordish underscores the alliance between the union and Bally’s.

Cordish has work agreements with a rival labor group, the Seafarers Entertainment & Allied Trades Union.

Unite Here’s letter to Petersburg officials specifically alleges that the public notice for the April 24 meeting was inadequate because it didn’t convey enough information about what business the council was actually conducting.

“A person reading the notice would have no idea that the closed session meeting would discuss the selection of Cordish, or what ‘particular case, controversy, or issue’ was to be the meeting’s subject,” Paul More, an attorney representing Unite Here, wrote in the April 29 letter instructing Petersburg officials to preserve “all documents, emails, text messages and other communications” related to the casino process. The attorney specifically said Petersburg officials should retain all records of communications with Cordish.

Petersburg spokeswoman Joanne Williams said the city had no comment on Unite Here’s lawsuit announcement.

The City Council is planning to hold another closed session tomorrow, with a similarly vague agenda indicating the topic will be related to the casino.

Petersburg City Attorney Anthony Williams said last week that the council would need to approve a correction to the resolution it approved on April 24, but it’s unclear if that’s the purpose for Wednesday’s meeting. 

The original resolution misstated the date of a public meeting Aird hosted on April 14 about the five casino proposals Petersburg had received as part of the since-canceled competitive process. 

The council’s resolution indicated the meeting took place on March 22 and implied the city’s financial consultant, Davenport & Company, recommended Cordish that same day. The proposed change to the resolution states that Davenport communicated its initial findings to Petersburg City Manager John “March” Altman Jr. after the April 14 public meeting with Aird.

Davenport made an initial recommendation that the Cordish project was best for Petersburg. Cordish developed the Live! Casino & Hotel in Maryland’s Anne Arundel County and the Power Plant Live! Entertainment district in Baltimore, as well as two Hard Rock casinos in Florida.

However, Davenport told Petersburg officials it wanted to ask follow-up questions of Cordish, Bally’s and another bidder, Rush Street Gaming, before making a final recommendation. The city scrapped the bidding process before those questions were answered.

The secrecy surrounding Petersburg’s decision-making has also frustrated some local residents like Barb Rudolph, who runs a government watchdog Facebook page called Clean Sweep Petersburg. A longtime city resident, Rudolph said the city still could have picked Cordish without torpedoing the process and holding mysterious meetings.

“It’s very disillusioning for citizens to find out we’re all being played,” Rudolph said in an interview. “Secrets can’t be kept. That’s the stupid part.”