AJC/Cobb Chair Battling Over Stadium Deal Legalities

In a story published on myajc.com on Saturday, writer Dan Klepal is accusing Tim Lee, the Cobb County Commission Chairman, of illegally hiring an attorney to act on the Commission’s behalf with early secret negotiations with the Atlanta Braves in 2013 – negotiations that led to the stadium deal announced in November of last year.

In response, Tim Lee has, according to columnists writing for the Marietta Daily Journal, shut down interview requests from the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

The Issue

The AJC has been trying to learn about the origins of the stadium deal, since virtually nothing was revealed prior to the announcement in November 2013.  In Saturday’s story, the AJC claims to have obtained an email from Tim Lee sent to attorney Dan McRae on October 8th, 2013 advising that McRae’s firm was Cobb County’s “project and bond counsel on the stadium project.”

The paper goes on to report that the email’s origin was an account associated with the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce (CCCOC).  This is significant because it was not under the purview of the Georgia Open Records Act.  They suggest that Lee had someone there send the message on his behalf, quoting “I am passing on yo you the following provided by Chairman Tim Lee on behalf of Cobb County and its entities.”

At that point, the Braves’ project even had a code name:  Project Intrepid.

The reason that AJC is on this story is because of two possible violations of law discussed in the lengthy article linked above:  (a) a circumvention of the Open Records Act; and (b) that hiring an ‘outside legal counsel’ is only to be done via the county attorney.

The first meeting between Lee (along with the CCCOC’s executive vice president of economic development Brooks Mathis) and the Braves appears to to have been back in July of 2013 after discussions with the City of Atlanta broke down over the Braves’ desire to have more control over the land around Turner Field and a redevelopment plan for that area.  Attorney McRae, it is reported, was involved from nearly that time as well.

It wasn’t until early November that the rest of the Cobb County Commission – and the County Attorney – were briefed on the project, which became public on November 11th.

Lee’s Complaint

In a note to writer Klepal, quoted by the Marrietta Daily Journal, Lee outlined his objections to the AJC’s handling and characterization of the situation:

"“I have decided not to be interviewed again by the AJC because I believe, as do many business leaders and citizens in my County and as I believe the Atlanta Braves have concluded, the AJC is terribly biased on the issue of the Braves moving outside the City of Atlanta… The misreporting by the AJC has been used for political purposes to file baseless ethical charges that the AJC then reports as if they are fact in a never ending circle of false allegations.”"

Lee went on to claim that McRae was providing legal advice, though without payment, any promise to be paid, nor did he request to be paid for that time.  He bristled at the notion that McRae engaged in “negotiations”.

The AJC has cited additional sources suggesting that the lack of a contract between McRae and the County did not mean that a Client/Counsel relationship was not in place.  They also suggested early in this story – without attribution – that McRae’s time could have been worth $4 million.  But as Lee pointed out, McRae has never been paid anything.

The Smell Test is … smelly

As the AJC continued to poke around, it seems that attorney Dan McRae may have been their biggest story asset.  They paint a picture of a rebuffed advisor – McRae – who in later months was repeatedly trying to reach Lee and the County Commission.  Those calls were going unanswered.

At the same time, Lee was denying having hired McRae or anybody else to negotiate for the County.  That said, the picture developing is getting fairly clear in multiple directions:

• Lee knew that it was beyond his authority to hire an outside counsel
• The outside counsel – McRae – was being shut out as the AJC continued to close in.

However, once Cobb County’s (official) Attorney Deborah Dance was brought into knowledge of the project, she hired the Thompson Hine firm – not McRae’s Seyfarth Shaw.  One can speculate that McRae might have been given wink/nod indications of future work and was trying to contact Lee and the commission about that.  Dance told the AJC that she received no pressure or advice about hiring McRaw and his firm (Seyfarth Shaw).

Meanwhile, the paper has other evidence against Chairman Lee (who is already under an ethics investigation):

• “[Cobb County Counsel] Deborah Dance told the newspaper for that story that she “personally witnessed” McRae negotiating on the county’s behalf.”
• “The Braves also acknowledged McRae negotiated ‘the framework’ of the MOU agreement.”
• The AJV had a story in August 2014 about the preliminary agreement between the Braves and Cobb… which came from 20 versions bounced back and forth between McRae and Braves’ counsel Greg Heller.

So what happened?  The AJC requested – based on a tip – emails from McRae, the CCCOC and the Braves related to Tim Lee under the Open Records Law from various sources two weeks ago.  There’s hints that the jilted McRae may have made enough noise to get noticed, for that ‘smoking gun’ email is now in the paper’s possession.

What is the End Game?

Insofar as the stadium and its related contracts are concerned, nothing.  Those deals were voted on by the full County Commission, and they have already passed much legal hurdles of significance.

The focus of the AJC story, however, is fully on Cobb Chairman Lee and his handling of the situation.  I expect it will get a lot warmer for him as more information is learned.