Judge to reconsider Aurora ruling

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 6, 2006

By AMY RINARD
arinard@journalsentinel.com

A judge has agreed to reconsider at trial a ruling he made in May that the City of Oconomowoc violated the state's open meetings law when aldermen met behind closed doors to discuss changing the zoning on Aurora Health Care's proposed hospital site.

Aurora sued the city in 2001 after the Common Council voted to change the zoning on a 43-acre parcel in Pabst Farms where Aurora had planned to build an 88-bed hospital. Under the revised zoning designation, a hospital could not be built on the site.

Among a number of preliminary rulings in the case handed down in May, Waukesha County Circuit Judge James Kieffer ruled that the rezoning action was illegal because there had been no written application for it. That meant the zoning of the Pabst Farms parcel reverted to its original designation, and Aurora immediately resubmitted its application to the city to build the hospital there.

City officials have said they would appeal that ruling and ask Kieffer to reconsider his decision on whether the rezoning was legal. Those motions have not yet been filed.

At issue in Kieffer's decision handed down Monday is whether proper notice, required under the open meetings law, was given by the city prior to an April 12, 2001, closed session of the Common Council, during which Aurora says aldermen and city staff discussed rezoning the proposed hospital's site.

Lisle W. Blackbourn, an Elkhorn attorney representing the city, said Wednesday that the city had filed a motion seeking reconsideration of the open meetings ruling based on new information.

He said a person who worked in the city clerk's office at the time of the 2001 meeting testified in a sworn statement that she routinely posted notices of closed sessions on two public bulletin boards in City Hall, sent copies to be posted at the city library and Community Recreation Center and notified the news media.

"It was their practice to actually post the notice at various locations in the city," Blackbourn said.

Whether the clerk's office followed this procedure and made proper notice of the April 12, 2001, closed session of the Common Council will now be decided during trial.

No trial date has been set.

While the case moves forward in Waukesha County Circuit Court and an appeal is prepared on Kieffer's ruling that the rezoning vote was illegal, both sides have said they are willing to discuss an out-of-court settlement.

"It is in the best interests of all parties that this matter be resolved through a settlement agreement. That should be the focus now," Aurora spokesman Jeff Squire said.

Aurora officials have made it clear that they would prefer to build a hospital in neighboring Summit, at another location in Pabst Farms south of I-94. The health care provider turned its attention there after the city rezoned the first proposed site.

Town officials endorsed the building plan, and it is backed by Pabst Farms developers. But the County Board last year declined to approve a land-use change needed for construction to proceed.