Opinion ID: 1186902
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: city of kenai

Text: During June of 1979, the City of Kenai began soliciting applications for city manager. Subsequently, the City Council met, without notice to the public and without keeping minutes, to review applications and interview applicants. Max Swearingen, the publisher of the Peninsula Clarion, a daily publication of Kenai Peninsula Newspapers, Inc., asked the City to release a list of names and a summary of credentials of the applicants. This request was considered by the City Council on August 2, 1979, and rejected. In a letter written to Swearingen, the mayor voiced a concern that such disclosures would jeopardize the applicants' personal privacy, deter future applications from qualified people concerned about public exposure, and compromise the council's moral obligation to respect the privacy interests of individual applicants. Kenai Peninsula Newspapers filed suit to require the City to allow inspection of the applications and to enjoin the City Council from further review and action upon the applications except at a public meeting. The superior court issued a temporary restraining order enjoining further deliberations toward the appointment of a City Manager for the City of Kenai from which the public is excluded... . After briefing and a second hearing, the superior court entered a decision which concluded that the applications were public records and that the deliberations of the city council concerning appointment of a city manager must be held in public meetings. The court thereupon ordered the city to permit the inspection and copying of the applications and to refrain from any closed deliberations concerning the selection of the new city manager. The superior court stayed, pending appeal, that portion of its order requiring the immediate release of the applications for employment. The parties then stipulated that the order should be considered a final judgment and that the city would deliver over to the Plaintiff copies of all resumes and applications of all applicants for city manager who do not choose to withdraw their application upon being notified of the [city's] agreement to release the same. The agreed upon release was made without prejudice to the city's right to appeal the order requiring it. Ten of the thirty-two applicants for the position withdrew their applications upon learning of the possibility of disclosure. Kenai Peninsula Newspapers subsequently moved for disclosure of the names and information concerning the withdrawn applicants. This motion was denied.