FOIA lawsuit against city dismissed

A lawsuit filed against Charlottesville that sought to reveal information about a possible bid for the Charlottesville Parking Center’s shares was quickly dismissed Wednesday after a court summons.

After claiming his requests for information were ignored, Spencer Connerat, a CPC shareholder and rejected bidder, filed a Freedom of Information Act suit last month in hopes of forcing the city to specify whether it inked a confidentiality agreement with the parking center. Such an agreement would allow city officials to examine the company’s assets and to make a formal bid for them, including multiple CPC parking sites downtown.

General District Judge Robert H. Downer Jr. dismissed the FOIA lawsuit Wednesday because city officials responded to Connerat’s information request two days after receiving it, providing him with the inked confidentiality agreement. The law requires that a response be made within five working days.

City Attorney Craig Brown appeared in court Wednesday in response to the court summons. However, neither Connerat nor his attorney, Randolph Trow, was present.

“It looks like you’ve acceded to his request,” Downer said.

In a phone interview, Connerat said he was “disappointed” that the lawsuit was dismissed. Calls for comment to city spokesman Ric Barrick and James R. Berry, the parking center’s president and chief executive officer, were not returned.

A copy of the confidentiality agreement obtained by The Daily Progress shows that the city and Berry signed the document Sept. 12, 2007, verifying city officials’ claims that they have long held interest in the properties — including a 125-space surface parking lot, the land under the Water Street parking garage and 284 spaces in the garage. The Charlottesville government owns the adjacent Water Street surface lot where the City Market is held.

Last year the Charlottes-ville Community Design Center held a design competition for possible uses for the two lots, costing the city $160,000. Additionally, to examine whether the properties would be a good investment, the city government in August 2007 commissioned a $200,000 study by the Williams Mullen law firm.

But a proposal has still not been crafted, even though the bidding deadline expired more than two months ago, after already being extended from April 1.

Connerat was one of at least two rejected bidders for the company’s properties before it upped the price tag July 18, demanding at least $17.5 million. Connerat proposed $16.2 million, while Richard T. Spurzem, a local real estate investor and CPC shareholder, offered to purchase the 405,000 outstanding shares of CPC stock for $9.3 million.

Northern Virginia investors attempted to purchase the surface lot in 2006 to build condos, but the deal fell through.

CPC was formed in 1959 by a group of business owners who wanted to expand parking in downtown Charlottes-ville. The first time the company paid a dividend was in January, at 50 cents per share, because it kept its earnings in reserve and reinvested profits into the business.