Aurora and city square off again in new hearing

Oconomowoc Focus, Feb. 14, 2006

Jonna Clark, staff writer

Waukesha - Past court decisions on whether the City of Oconomowoc violated open-meetings laws in connection with Aurora Health Care's blocked bid to build a hospital in 2001 will get another look and could be overturned.

At a hearing last week, before the third circuit court judge to get the suit, James R. Kieffer, attorneys on both sides agreed on Kieffer's authority to reconsider and possibly overturn past rulings.

Aurora requested the hearing and contends the city violated open-meetings and public notice laws put in place by the state, and zoning ordinances.

In 2001, the city rezoned a parcel of land in Pabst Farms, which made building a hospital there impossible.

Aurora announced plans to build the proposed hospital in March, the city rezoned the parcel in spring 2001, and Aurora filed suit against the city in August 2001.

The lawsuit was put on hold in 2004 while Aurora pursued plans to build the hospital on the other side of I-94 on a piece of Pabst Farms in the Town of Summit.

In April 2005, the Waukesha County Board voted against amending the town's master plan to allow Aurora to build a hospital, and Aurora and Summit launched a suit against the county.

Aurora attorney Brian McGrath argued that the city violated open-records laws by not complying with Aurora's requests for minutes from closed meetings. McGrath told Kieffer that an affidavit from former council member Jerry Erdmann included testimony that officials had discussed how to keep a hospital from the proposed site.

McGrath also argued that the city violated open-records law by devising a strategy to block Aurora's proposal and called the decision capricious and arbitrary.

McGrath said the city's actions were improper and were done to protect ProHealth Care's Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital from competition.

Attorney for the city, Lisle Blackbourn argued that the city had complied with Aurora's requests and provided box-loads of material and that the closed meetings in question were held to discuss developer agreements.

Blackbourn also pointed out the voluntary and committed nature of the Common Council and the long record of service of city staffers with no motivation to lie or cover up.

"This was a decision made in the public eye," Blackbourn said and added that Aurora's contentions represented a fractured and torturing retelling of the events, and termed the argument a failure.

Kieffer said he would review the case and would make a ruling.