During the council’s work session Wednesday at City Hall, 410 Abbot Road, East Lansing Assistant City Attorney Tom Yeadon said an offer recently was made by Hank to dismiss the suit if the city reimburses Bellfy for $1,500 worth of attorney fees and if the council agrees to hold an ethics hearing related to the alleged ethics violations by city officials.

These terms could appear to be a conflict of interest from the outside if the office presents this offer to council because McGinty also is on the suit, but Yeadon said he still would be comfortable representing both parties, considering the frivolity of the suit.

In a letter addressed to the council, Yeadon said his firm believes the allegations made against the city and McGinty are means of harassment toward officials involved in the City Center II project.

“The fact that Dennis McGinty was named as a defendant in both his ‘individual and official capacity’ when he is not even a member of the public body, along with Mr. Bellfy’s prior history of harassment, is clear evidence of the intent of the litigation,” Yeadon said in the letter. “I reasonably believe that my representation will not be adversely affected.”

In a previous interview with The State News, Bellfy said he felt the city had violated the Open Meetings Act and said the suit was a means to force the council to respond to his allegations.

“We’re pretty confident they have definitely violated the Open Meetings Act,” he said. “I tried to resolve those issues, give them (an) out. They decided as a council not to respond to me.”

Yeadon said the potential conflict lay not in the representation, but in the offer recently made by Hank and Bellfy.

“I believe I can do that here because there’s no inherent conflict in the litigation itself,” Yeadon said. “The conflict only arises because the offer was made.”

Councilmember Vic Loomis said he agreed with Yeadon and felt no conflict of interest was present in the situation as the interests of both McGinty and the city are aligned in the case.

“We followed the advice that we pay the city attorney to provide us for,” Loomis said. “I don’t see there’s any reason for you not to continue to represent both (the) city and McGinty because our interests are completely aligned.”

Council also heard a presentation from East Lansing Director of Public Works Todd Sneathen regarding a draft of summer construction plans on Albert Avenue and Grove Street.

The seven-phase project, encompassing both Albert Avenue and Grove Street as well as surrounding sidewalks and alleyways, will update sewer lines, reconstruct the road pavement and allow for new bike lanes.

Construction is slated to begin at the end of April and hopefully will end prior to students’ return in August, Sneathen said.

The project will temporarily close off two of downtown East Lansing’s main streets but the phases were split to limit the impact on downtown business, Sneathen said

“We aren’t just shutting down town at any point,” he said.