TORRANCE >> The city last year quietly paid $1.9 million to settle a lawsuit brought by an officer who became permanently disabled after he allegedly was Tasered by a superior during a Police Department briefing.

City Attorney John Fellows said the case, filed in July 2011 and settled in January 2014, also cost the city another $647,313 in legal fees. Yet taxpayers were never told that the City Council, behind closed doors, had approved the $2.5 million total payout.

The council granted its attorneys the authority to settle the case in closed session on Dec. 10, 2013, Fellows said. Because consultations with legal counsel on pending litigation are exempt from disclosure under the state’s open-meetings law, city officials did not have to report the outcome of the closed session.

But they also didn’t disclose that the meeting occurred, which they are required to do.

The closed session, which included discussion of the settlement amount, was added as an urgency item after the publication and distribution of the council agenda. But then-City Clerk Sue Herbers and her staff did not add notification of the session to the agenda on the city website, Fellows said.

Nor, it turns out, were the minutes of that meeting made available online. A look at the city’s website shows that minutes summarizing meetings have only been consistently placed online since last August.

“It wasn’t done intentionally,” Fellows said. “We’re not trying to hide it. We’re just not trying to publicize it. It’s a fine line.”

The settlement may have remained hidden from public view had a Daily Breeze reporter not specifically asked about it. State law requires an agency to disclose a finalized settlement “upon inquiry by any person.”

City officials had good reason not to err on the side of transparency.

The payout to Officer Zachary Bazilius, who left the city nearly two years ago, contributed to a jump in settlement costs last year.

Finance Director Eric Tsao said litigation settlements ballooned to $2.7 million in fiscal year 2013-14, more than the previous three years combined.

The city spent $510,000 in fiscal year 2012-13, for example, and $480,000 in 2011, Tsao said.

Indeed, the bill for settlements and associated legal fees escalated so much that late last year more than $1.6 million from the city’s operating fund was transferred to a reserve fund to pay for the “influx of unanticipated settlement claims over the past two fiscal years.”

The extra cash boosted the fund to $3.2 million, suggesting taxpayers will be coughing up more money for such costs in the months ahead.

For example, in late July — after the start of fiscal year 2014-15 — Torrance paid $1.8 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a local surfer whose pickup truck was mistakenly hit three times by a Torrance police officer during the frenzied Christopher Dorner manhunt in February 2013. The bullets narrowly missed the driver of the pickup.

Again, Torrance officials disclosed that settlement figure only because the Daily Breeze specifically asked for the information, not because of any municipal policy requiring transparency.

“There’s never going to be a press release,” said Frank Scotto, who was mayor when the two settlements were negotiated. He added: “Nobody is hiding anything.”

In his lawsuit against the city, Bazilius said he was Tasered by Sgt. Martin Magee during a July 2010 briefing.

Magee stunned Bazilius after the 35-year-old cop had complained of back pain en route to the meeting and then was unable to rise from his chair at the end of it, according to the lawsuit.

Apparently seeking to verify whether Bazilius was being truthful, McGee discharged his Taser behind Bazilius’ head. That caused the officer to lurch forward and caused “permanent injuries,” the lawsuit said.

Those injuries were exacerbated, according to the settlement agreement, when Bazilius fell again in September 2011 while on duty at the city “allegedly as a result of his original injuries.”

Neither Bazilius nor his legal team responded to messages seeking comment.

Bazilius, who payroll records show made more than $121,000 in pay and benefits in calendar year 2011, retired from the city in May 2013, Torrance officials said.

After receiving the settlement in January 2014, property records show, Bazilius paid $930,000 in cash the following month for a house on Via Coronel in ritzy Palos Verdes Estates.

Meanwhile, McGee, who earned almost $165,000 in 2012, remains a member of the Torrance Police Department, officials said.

Former Councilman Tom Brewer, who voted to approve the settlement, was unaware of that.

“I’m surprised he’s still employed,” Brewer said. “If he caused that kind of damage and problems, there should be some follow-up on that.”