Butler Mayor Tom Donaldson has made a complaint to the Butler County District Attorney’s Office stating that three members of city council violated the Sunshine Act, the state law that requires public agencies to conduct most of their business in public.

Donaldson is alleging that Councilmen Michael Walter, Corey Roche and Kathy Kline held an illegal private session — called an executive session — following the Dec. 22, city council meeting at the city building.

“I feel that the public has the right to know that not only did three members of this council break the law in regards to the civil service rules and regulations, they broke the law in regards to the Sunshine Act,” Donaldson said.

He was referring to his lawsuit against the city and the same three council members when speaking of civil service rules and regulations.

He has a civil suit against them for council’s promotion of two Butler Fire Department firefighters in what Donaldson contends is a violation of the civil service rules and regulations.

Donaldson said he presented Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger with documentation that supported his claim, and that Goldinger submitted a letter regarding the complaint to the state attorney general’s office. He said he later spoke to Goldinger regarding the letter.

“Goldinger advised me (the letter) somehow went to the wrong section of the attorney general’s office and they were trying to track it down,” Donaldson said.

Joe Grace, director of communications of the state attorney general’s office, said as of Thursday the office had not received a letter from Goldinger.

Goldinger could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Donaldson said the state attorney general’s office will determine whether his claim is to be further investigated.

The Sunshine Act requires officials to notify the public that they are holding an executive session. The notice should be given either just before or just after the executive session.

Donaldson said that after the city council meeting, he was on the first floor of the city building when he was notified that Kline, Walter and Roche were still in council chambers.

He said he went up to where council chambers are and heard the voices of Kline, Walter and Roche through a closed door. He emphasized that he did not stick around to listen, but that when he drove by the building he saw Roche through the council room’s window.

He said he did not know for sure what was being discussed in the room, though he noted that the meeting was not brought up to the public at the following January city council meetings.

“I have no objection to them having the meeting,” he said. “It has to be done properly.”

The three council members contend that they met as co-defendants in the lawsuit brought against them by Donaldson.

The three council members also said they met on the advice of city solicitor Jim Coulter that they were allowed to meet to discuss matters of their case.

“That’s when I was made aware, that we were allowed to meet because we were defendants in the lawsuit,” Roche said.

Kline said before the meeting she had asked Coulter how the three council members as co-defendants could meet without being in violation of the Sunshine Act.

She also said the three council members were talking about hiring Leo Stepanian as their attorney in the lawsuit, and no other business was discussed.

She also said it was not an executive session.

“If we were talking and discussing it was because we had already checked with our city solicitor that we had the right to discuss and talk on a lawsuit that was being presented against us,” she said.

Donaldson also noted that a check for $1,377 of city money was made out to Stepanian on Jan. 27. The mayor said that this was done without approval at a council meeting and is a violation of the Sunshine Act.

“The proper procedure would have been a public motion to hire this attorney to represent them,” he said.

Walter, who also is the city’s director of accounts and finance, said that the city made payments to a labor attorney last year without making it known to the public. He also said it was not necessary to make the city’s payments to Stepanian public.

Kline and Roche had no comment on Donaldson making a claim against them, while Walter responded.

“I don’t know where (Donaldson) gets these ideas,” Walter said.

Kline said Stepanian had initially said he didn’t need to draft a new agreement for his services because of past work he had done for the city, but later decided to draft a new agreement.

Kline said she has a written request from Stepanian dated Feb. 10 regarding his services to the three council members which requests that they announce their agreement at the next city council meeting. The next meeting is Feb. 21. Kline said she had always intended to announce their agreement at the February meeting.

Councilman Kenny Bonus said he was not aware of the meeting and had no comment. Stepanian said he didn’t want to comment before he read a claim made against his clients.