FRANKLIN — The Central Street business owner who is suing City Hall is now 0-for-2 on attempts to settle the suit out of court.
The latest settlement offer, sent by attorney Mike Lewis on behalf of his client, Miriam Kovacs, offered to drop several of the named defendants in the case if the city agreed to pay Kovacs' legal fees and enact a series of reforms centered around police handling of civil rights violations and hate crime complaints, as well as the state’s right-to-know laws.
Franklin's attorney, Paul Fitzgerald of Westcott Law, said on Friday he met with the defendants on Thursday to discuss the offer, and none were amenable to the terms.
“Primarily because the offer’s underpinning is still admission on the part of the city of Franklin that it acted in a manner that tolerated or encouraged racism, discrimination or antisemitism.” Fitzgerald said. “To the person, the defendants do not believe that is accurate.”
“If Ms. Kovacs and her attorneys were looking for something that did not include that type of statement of culpability, we might have something” to negotiate, he said, explaining the two sides seemed to be at an impasse. Fitzgerald added the next step would be court-ordered mediation, which often produces an agreement.
“We think it might be best to wait until there is a professional mediator involved to see if there might be some common ground to be found between the two parties,” Fitzgerald said.
Lewis, an attorney with the firm Rath Young Pignatelli, said he and his client would participate in the mediation process, but isn't as optimistic about its chances. He noted mediation occurs in private, and its goal is generally to release both parties without legal obligation, while Kovacs’ interest in bringing the case was to improve transparency and efficacy of Franklin’s government.
“They are not listening. We are just going to have to litigate this,” Lewis said. “Their goal is to drive this toward a traditional mediation outcome that is governed by insurance norms and hopes to get mutual releases and dismissals with prejudice, which have only the financial ramifications, and if there are any, no legal ramifications that benefit Miriam and the community. Our aims are not that, our aims are different.”
Background
Kovacs is owner of The Broken Spoon, an eatery which found itself targeted, first on social media and then by vandalism, when she voiced support for another small business that was opposing white supremacists.
When she felt herself targeted, Kovacs called Franklin police, and felt she wasn’t provided adequate protection. When she then spoke about that concern, she said she was retaliated against by Police Chief David Goldstein, and also claims the city didn’t appropriately respond to her request for public documents that related to her ordeals.
Kovacs brought the suit in August, and named as defendants the city of Franklin and its police department, as well as individual officials Mayor Jo Brown, City Manager Judie Milner, Goldstein, Sgt. Daniel Ball, City Councilors Jay Chandler, Valerie Blake and Vincent Ribas, and April Bunker, former city councilor.
In November, Lewis offered to settle the suit if Franklin paid Kovacs’s legal fees — around $7,000 at that point — and agreed to a list of reforms.
Those reforms included training for police on hate crimes, adoption of a three-tiered protocol for responding to hate crimes and civil rights violations, identification of a civil rights designee, creation of a police oversight commission, for Kovacs to receive 10 days’ notice if she or her business is to be discussed in public meeting in a negative manner, and tight-to-know law training.
That initial offer was rejected, prompting a second settlement offer, delivered on Dec. 14, which asked for the same reforms, but from a smaller group of defendants. The current offer proposes to release Brown, Chandler, Ribas and Bunker. Remaining defendants would be the city, FPD, Goldstein, Ball and Milner.
Kovacs has previously stated her interest in the suit was never for financial gain, but for a reformed city government.
“Somebody has to stand up to all of this,” she has said.
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