Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/218481
TURNER WINS HIS SUNSHINE SUIT The City Commission sits in session earlier this year. Photo by Norman Schimmel CHAPMAN GOES ON THE ATTACK IN HER LEGAL CASE INVOLVING THE STATE'S OPEN MEETINGS LAW By Stan Zimmerman City Editor Late last week, after T h e S a r a s o t a News Leader's deadline, Sarasota City Commissioner Susan Chapman switched attorneys in her defense against a lawsuit filed by the group Citizens for Sunshine, which claimed she broke the state's open meetings law in October. Commissioner Suzanne Atwell, two police officers and downtown merchants. The topic was homelessness. Fuller's motion to dismiss says, "There is no allegation that defendant Susan Chapman discussed anything with defendant Suzanne Atwell at the meeting described in the Chapman's new attorney, Bill Fuller, wasted complaint." no time filing a motion to dismiss the suit, as well as a counterclaim against Citizens for Chapman adamantly refuses to admit she Sunshine. broke the Florida Sunshine Laws. City Citizens for Sunshine attorney Andrea Attorney Bob Fournier signed a settlement Mogensen filed the suit Oct. 18 following agreement on Nov. 14, admitting "the city's an Oct. 10 breakfast meeting attended by failure to provide notice … and to take minChapman, City Manager Tom Barwin, City utes was a violation of the Sunshine Law …."