Detroit City Council seeks to join suit for texts

The Detroit News reports:

In an unusual move, the City Council on Friday moved to join a lawsuit filed against the city by two newspapers seeking the release of controversial text messages between Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff as well as other documents related to the $8.4 million settlement of police whistle-blower cases.

Attorney William H. Goodman, special counsel to the nine-member panel, filed an emergency motion to intervene in the action brought by the Detroit Free Press and later joined by The Detroit News. The case, originally filed in early January, has resulted in the release of several documents that show the financial settlement of the cases was linked to Kilpatrick's efforts to keep the text messages out of public view.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Robert J. Colombo will consider the council's motion Friday.



"We feel we did not get the information we should have gotten," Goodman said. "We want to be part of this because we want to know about all of the items discovered so far and we want to know what else might be available -- what else we might not yet know about."

The council was never told of the text messages or the secret settlement that kept them from public view.

A true Democratic Party happening.