Correction, March 21, 2025 at 2:54 p.m.: A previous version of this article misstated Chadrick Mance’s role with the Savannah NAACP chapter. Mance is a former president, and the current president is Rev. Paul Smith, who was sworn in on Jan. 26, 2025.
A Savannah personal injury lawyer and local civil rights leader filed suit against the City of Savannah for allegedly withholding and delaying public records in violation of the Georgia Open Records Act.
The firm led by Chadrick Mance, who is a former president of the Savannah NAACP, filed the 85-page lawsuit in Chatham County Superior Court on March 14. The suit centers on multiple requests from the last five years relating to public safety and police responses at and around Savannah public housing complexes. Mance alleges that requests for records necessary for a civil suit were delayed and not adequately fulfilled by the city.
That separate case accuses the Housing Authority of Savannah of negligence overseeing and securing an East Savannah public housing complex where anti-gun violence activist Shawntray “Puff” Grant was murdered in 2018.
The new lawsuit shows the complexities of Georgia’s public records laws and its limitations, whether for lawyers or the general public. Although Mance should have records necessary to represent his client, the city has pushed back against his demands which were sometimes broad or imprecise, according to a review of requests attached to Mance’s complaint.
Georgia’s open records law leans towards disclosure and timely responses. If a municipal official considers a record request complex, the official should tell the requester a timeline of when the documents can be processed and the cost estimate for responding. However, the law does not require government bodies to compile records that don’t already exist.
Mance’s suit against the city shows at least two times when non-existent records caused friction. For one request, Mance’s firm asked for calls for service at a public housing complex during a three-year period, starting in 2015. However, the Savannah Police Department’s dispatch system was implemented in 2017, so the city responded to Mance that they had no records before that year.
In another case, according to court documents, Mance asked for a list of officers assigned to a specific set of patrol beats during those years. However, the city did not keep a list of officers working those beats, according to replies from the city to the lawyer.
State public records law also restricts government agencies from disclosing personal information (Social Security numbers, for example) or other exempted information, like information regarding ongoing criminal investigations, trade secrets or foster parent identification. That means that attorneys or clerks for government agencies review documents to ensure no private or confidential material is released.
One February 2025 email cited in the lawsuit, from deputy city attorney and co-defendant Jennifer Herman, indicated that thousands of pages had to be reviewed and city employees were being paid overtime to review Mance’s requested documents.
The city declined to comment on the lawsuit citing its policy on active or pending litigation, according to spokesperson Joshua Peacock.
Mance told The Current that the city has turned over some of his requested records, but described the larger issue in the case as “death by a thousand cuts.”
“If you introduce one thousand obstructions to getting records; you might disclose them, but you had to jump through hoops of fire and do flips in the air to get them,” Mance said. “That has an eroding effect on public confidence and on democracy as a whole.”
The Georgia Open Records Act states “there is a strong presumption that public records should be made available for public inspection without delay” and that the act “shall be broadly construed to allow the inspection of governmental records.”
Mance’s lawsuit came days after a Fulton County judge ordered that the Atlanta area’s district attorney, Fani Willis, pay approximately $54,000 for violating the Open Records Act.
Mance’s requests on behalf of Grant’s family follow his long history of civil rights and personal injury cases.
Grant, an anti-gun violence activist, was murdered in an armed robbery in 2018 at the so-called The View apartments located near Lincoln and Wheaton streets. That is where the crime-ridden Hitch Village apartments once stood.
In June 2020, Grant’s estate sued the Housing Authority of Savannah for offloading security responsibilities to private firms that profited off the negligently maintained properties. The case has been ongoing for nearly five years. The Housing Authority is a separate agency from the city, but the mayor appoints its board members.
The Savannah Police Department, also collaborates with the authority for safety at its complexes. Mance’s multiple requests deal with police reports, calls for service, meeting minutes, communications and more between the authority, SPD and the city relating to The View and Hitch Village, according to court documents.
You must be logged in to post a comment.