Assistant City Attorney Steven Gross tried to thwart Clifford's complaint with procedural curve balls (he hoped to postpone the case, telling the judge, "Ten days would be nice, Your Honor"), but only succeeded in annoying Judge Shaffer. The judge demanded that the city respond to the complaint in two business days. In the meantime, she canceled the upcoming meeting. Embarrassed, Gross headed back to city hall and personally delivered Shaffer's order to all the city council members.
"This is dishonest and closed government at its best," Clifford says. "The law is squarely on my side." (This reporter has given a sworn deposition in the case, attesting to being escorted out of an illegally closed April 19 meeting.)
In addition to holding closed meetings, the Citizen Task Force on racial profiling includes no young African American males, while it does include a former assistant city attorney, a staffer from the mayor's office, and a staffer from Council Member Jim Compton's office. A Compton resolution created the troubled task force.
Compton's office referred us to task force member Pat Champion for a comment. Champion did not return our call.
As we went to press, Judge Shaffer ruled with Clifford again, mandating that the racial profiling task force meetings had to be open and provide notice to the public about the time and location of the meetings. She also ordered the city to pay Clifford's attorney's fees.
