Who has camera access?

Already the subject of a lawsuit and an active tort claim, cameras came up during the closing minutes of Thursday’s Portland Board of Works meeting.

Portland clerk-treasurer Lori Phillips requested access to all cameras in public areas of the interior and exterior of Portland City Hall.

Phillips asked the board of works for access to the cameras, including those in hallways and the carport. She asked Mayor Jeff Westlake, who sits on the board, for a timeline for access.

Westlake said he would address the issue Friday morning.

Phillips then asked who currently has access to the cameras’ footage. Westlake said there is access via screens in Police Chief Dustin Mock’s office as well as in the office of the mayor’s secretary.

Phillips then again requested access in her office as well as the ability to review the footage “from time to time.”

Westlake pushed to table the request.

“We have some things pending against us, so I just want to make sure that this is an OK thing,” he said, referring to the lawsuit and tort claims against the city.

Phillips then asked board of works member Jerry Leonhard if he had any questions regarding her request. He said he did not.

The board took no action on Phillips’ request for access to the cameras.

Cameras in city hall are the subject of a lawsuit and a tort claim that are active against the city.

Phillips is suing the city, Mock and investigator Jeff Hopkins, saying she has been the focus of “torment, harassment and defamation.” Part of her suit alleges that Mock and Hopkins reviewed and distributed video footage of her exercising in the city's exercise room and that those recordings included her private telephone conversations.

In a tort claim, a step required to file suit against a government entity, former wastewater department employee Brad Clayton alleges that Phillips, while on government property, made a phone call to her mother during which she disclosed Clayton's leave status and his diagnosis. (It says the call was recorded.)

Phillips also said police officer Jaylen Riddle resigned from the department Wednesday. Westlake confirmed Riddle’s departure, noting that he had not passed Indiana Law Enforcement Academy. 

Westlake and Leonhard also approved a pay request from James Jackson Company of Bluffton for its August work on the ongoing upgrades to the city’s wastewater treatment plant. The request was for $538,000, with $475,200 to be paid out and the remaining $52,800 held as retainage. The project is expected to be complete in fall 2026.

Board members Leonhard and Westlake, with member Steve McIntosh absent, also approved the following:

•A contract not to exceed $10,000 with financial consulting firm Baker Tilly for a study of fees for trash removal and recycling services. The city currently charges $5.50 per month. Phillips said most municipalities charge higher rates, ranging from $15 to $20, and that Portland’s rates will likely need to increase.

•The hiring of part-time firefighters Brian Jellison, Ben Walter and Braden McIntire.

•A new sewer tap at 1609 N. Meridian St.