A memo from the Louisiana Attorney General's Office alleging the Lafayette City-Parish Council violated the Louisiana Open Meetings law was not intended for public release.

Attorney General Jeff Landry told The Acadiana Advocate on Tuesday a July 8 memo from Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Wale was an internal memo. He said it was an evaluation of a situation that normally would go to him to determine whether a potential violation occurred and if any action would be taken.

The memo was given by an attorney in Landry's office to Lafayette attorney Lane Roy who represented Keith Kishbaugh in an unsuccessful lawsuit against the Lafayette City-Parish Council over how to correct errors in new city of Lafayette council districts. Landry's office represented Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, who intervened in Kishbaugh's lawsuit. Both argued the council had to go to voters with another home rule charter vote to correct errors in the council districts. The information was given to Roy, Landry said, because they were on the same side in the lawsuit.

"We had an internal memo. It went to a lawyer and it got made public," Landry said. "It's certainly disappointing that one of our internal memos ended up in public and became a story."

Landry said his staff filed a public records request with Lafayette Consolidated Government after demographer Mike Hefner testified in the civil trial that he sent the wrong version of a map showing new city council districts to councilmen via email and text message.

Roy said he received from the AG's office the memo and multiple attachments, including text messages among council members and Fix the Charter supporters preparing for a council vote on calling a Dec. 8 home rule charter election. Roy said he didn't know the memo was an internal document. It is not labeled confidential or internal, he said.

"I did send it to the people I represented in the lawsuit, as I did all pleadings and notices," Roy said.

While Kishbaugh's name is the only one on the lawsuit, Roy said seven or eight people were involved in the lawsuit, by attending meetings and contributing money. However, they decided "it would only complicate things" to place all their names on the lawsuit.

Those individuals, Roy said, included real estate developer Jeremiah Supple, conservative radio talk show host Carol Ross and Patricia Carter. He was uncertain if Michael Lunsford contributed money to the lawsuit and said he could not remember the names of the others.

In an email reply, Ross said she was a plaintiff in the lawsuit and said as much on her radio show. She also said she contributed money to pay for the lawsuit.

Lunsford is paid to operate a 501c4 nonprofit "issue advocacy" group called Citizens for a New Louisiana, at one time called Lafayette Citizens Against Taxes. The group has been vocal on social media in its opposition to the creation of separate city and parish councils.

Roy said he gave the memo and text messages to all of them.

Lunsford said he received the memo and text messages through someone who he believes obtained them from Ross. He said he was a spectator to the lawsuit who did not contribute to it because he doesn't have the money to do so. While he was invited to and attended one meeting of the group, Lunsford said he "was not involved in a day-to-day capacity."

Ross said on her radio talk show that she was involved in the lawsuit, Lunsford said, but he does not know if she or Supple helped pay for the lawsuit.

The Attorney General's memo and text messages made headlines in the past week in the news media and social media. The text messages reveal exchanges by four council members and two Fix the Charter supporters that suggest council members were polled about their votes on the charter election, talked about convincing one councilman to vote for the plan by getting him drunk and discussed when to release maps of the new council districts.

Lunsford and others have used the memo and text messages to take aim at the council members involved, two of whom are seeking election to the new city and parish councils. His biggest target appears to be Carlee Alm-LaBar, a leader of the Fix the Charter PAC and movement. Alm-LaBar is a candidate for Lafayette mayor-president and is the only candidate who is not a Republican.

His group cannot endorse a candidate, Lunsford said, because it is prohibited from doing so. He called the group "relatively non partisan."

Asked why much of the group's Facebook page is dedicated to criticizing Alm-LaBar, Lunsford said, "We grab ahold of a thread and we follow it wherever it goes. There's a lot of chicanery going on and her group (Alm-LaBar is no longer associated with Fix the Charter) is in the middle of it."

The Louisiana Attorney General, who is up for re-election, expressed his displeasure with his office being involved in what he called a "tabloid story."

"I've done everything in the world to keep our office outside the political fray," Landry said. He later added, "I'm being drug into their political garbage."

Supple, Ross and Carter did not respond to requests for comment.