The South Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau has spent almost a quarter of a million dollars in its ongoing legal battle with former SSCVA President and CEO Speros Batistatos — and that only covers one of the law firms involved.
A Post-Tribune analysis of some of the legal bills the tourism agency has racked up in the litigation reveals that it has so far paid $237,835.80 between 2021 and now to Indianapolis-based Barnes and Thornburg, which is representing the SSCVA as an entity. Batistatos sued the SSCVA on August 29, 2022 — a month after it fired him — alleging it violated the law in the handling of his contract renegotiations due to his age as well as misspent federal Payroll Protection Plan funds in violation of the CARES Act, a claim the board disputes.
The SSCVA paid Barnes & Thornburg $10,692.50 for November and December 2021; $51,525.68 in 2022; $51,578.20 in 2023 and $124,039.42 this year, according to the invoices SSCVA attorney Scott McClure sent as part of an Access Public Records Act request the Post-Tribune filed in August. While they don’t directly list the attorneys’ hourly rates, an average of one of the monthly bills shows that the agency is paying Barnes and Thornburg roughly $413 an hour in legal fees.
But much of what that money is going toward is unclear since the SSCVA redacted many of the work descriptions as “attorney-client privilege,” which it’s allowed to do per a 2006 Indiana Public Access Counselor ruling.
McClure also didn’t send invoices for work performed by David Westland, who represents SSCVA Board Chairman Andy Qunell, Treasurer Matt Maloney, board members Brent Brashier and Matt Schuffert, and former member Tom Dabertin as individuals in the case. The Board in March voted to allow the SSCVA to pay the legal bills of board members named in Batistatos’ suit even if they’re no longer serving on it.
United States District Court Northern District of Indiana Magistrate John E. Martin on September 10 filed an order that requires both parties to have all fact discovery completed by June 30, 2025, and all expert discovery by September 30, 2025, the Post-Tribune previously reported, though summary judgment deadlines won’t apply and the parties will need to complete mediation as well by September 30, 2025. The SSCVA, meanwhile, budgeted $150,000 in its legal line item for 2025, though it’s able to make appropriations from other funds in its $6,614,250 2025 budget
The SSCVA is not a publicly funded agency, but is funded through casino and hotel tax revenues, according to its website.
The Post-Tribune requested on August 19 via email “all detailed legal invoices” attached to the ongoing lawsuit after the SSCVA in July appropriated $99,150 to go toward continuing legal fees in the case. SSCVA Attorney Scott McClure acknowledged the Post-Tribune’s request on August 20 — within Public Access guidelines for electronic requests — and said he should have a response by August 30, the Post-Tribune previously reported.
In a separate email later that day, however, he said that because the invoices contain information that doesn’t fall under what the Indiana Public Access law considers public record, it would need more time to redact the sensitive information and provided a Public Access Counselor ruling from 2006 to explain his decision. Under state law, written work an attorney performs for a public agency could be exempted, though it’s unclear why any of the SSCVA attorneys would include language such as strategy in an invoice.
McClure didn’t give a specific time as to when that would be, but did say he would “update (the Post-Tribune) if August 30, 2024 isn’t sufficient.”
When the Post-Tribune didn’t hear anything from the SSCVA by August 30, it reached out to McClure on September 3, providing more recent opinions regarding legal invoices. Specifically, Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt has “consistently held that any redactions to legal invoices should only include attorney-client privileged material and those redactions should be narrowly tailored to protect just that material.”
Neither McClure nor the SSCVA responded to that email, so the Post-Tribune on September 19 reached out to McClure once again to check on the status of the invoices. McClure replied five days later, on September 24, that he anticipated having the bills gone through and available by September 30.
The Post-Tribune neither received the invoices nor a revised timeline on September 30, so the paper contacted McClure again on October 7 asking him whether the SSCVA is going to fulfill the request as required by state law. The paper then on October 18 filed a complaint with Public Access Counselor Luke Britt.
Shortly after the complaint — between October 22 and November 3 — the SSCVA sent the Barnes and Thornburg invoices. The complaint is ongoing.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
