Mayor Lyles, City Council majority votes to ‘terminate’ city attorney’s employment | WFAE 90.7

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles and the majority of the Charlotte City Council voted last week to “terminate” the employment of City Attorney Patrick Baker, according to a memo obtained by WFAE and people familiar with the matter.

The memo does not reveal the reason for Lyles and the council’s decision to end their relationship with Baker, who has worked for the city since 2019.

But several City Council members involved in the discussions said a contributing factor was Baker’s decision this spring to facilitate a WFAE public records request about the city’s proposed transportation plan. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential personal matter.

WFAE had requested the bill for a proposed transit authority and a new one-cent sales tax. Under state public records laws, draft documents are public records.

The city refused to release the document. After weeks of delays, Baker sent WFAE a copy of the bill to comply with state law.

During Baker’s closed-session performance review earlier this month, Mayor Pro Tem Dante Anderson told Baker he had “leaked” the document, according to four people who were part of the discussion.

The disclosure of a public document is not a leak; It is a requirement under state law.

Other council members complained that Baker had not told them or City Manager Marcus Jones about sending the document to WFAE.

During City Manager Marcus Jones’ tenure, the city has been slow to comply with public records requests. A memo from City Clerk Stephanie Kelly from early October shows the city has 415 records requests pending since 2024; 411 pending applications from 2023; 396 pending applications from 2022 and 350 unfulfilled applications from 2021.

There are some pending applications dating back to the last decade.

Baker declined to comment to WFAE about his future with the city. Lyles also declined to comment, citing confidentiality surrounding personnel issues.

Council members also discussed in closed session Baker’s role representing the city in a complicated negotiation with the Charlotte Hornets over hundreds of millions of dollars in publicly funded improvements to the city-owned Spectrum Center.

The city is hiring attorney Anthony Fox to handle negotiations over Baker’s compensation, according to the document. (Fox, who works at Parker Poe, is not the same person as the city’s former mayor, Anthony Foxx, also a lawyer.)

The city has presented two options for the future of Baker, according to the memo. You can retire in eight months starting in June 2025, the end of the tax year. That would allow him to “communicate (his) separation as a voluntary retirement.”

The other option is that you could “access a lump sum payment for (an) employment contract.” That would “follow written notification of the Council’s decision regarding his separation from employment.”

Lyles and at least six council members voted to move forward with the plan. The vote is not public and will not be because it was a personnel matter behind closed doors.

They have not held a formal vote to fire Baker, but that could happen if the two sides do not reach a financial agreement.

A memo from Lyles said that if council members have questions, they should direct them to her, Anderson or council member Ed Driggs, one of two Republicans on the council. Driggs chairs the council’s transportation committee and has become a close ally of the mayor over the past two years.