A lawsuit filed today in Wayne County Circuit Court seeks to tear up a preliminary agreement to bring the Detroit Pistons downtown claiming members of the public body that approved it violated the state's Open Meetings Act when they met privately to discuss the deal right before a public vote.

All five members of the Detroit Downtown Development Authority's finance committee met privately for four hours on Nov. 22 to comb over the Pistons deal, according to the lawsuit filed by local activist Robert Davis.Later that day, after the finance committee's discussions, the DDA's full board approved the deal during a half-hour public meeting.

Davis' lawsuit alleges that the DDA "purposely and intentionally divided itself" into the smaller committee to shut out the public from deliberations about the agreement for the Pistons to begin playing at the new Little Caesars Arena next year.

Read more:

How Gores’ meeting with Ilitches made Pistons’ move to downtown happen

Pistons move back to Detroit yet another psychological boost for city

Albom: Detroit Pistons going back where they belong, in the city

Here's who loses when the Detroit Pistons move to downtown

Seidel: Detroit Pistons' move downtown is a good thing

Detroit Pistons moving downtown: 'We want to be all in on Detroit'

Pistons' move downtown could bring nearly $600M, 2,000 jobs, study says

"That's a problem because whenever a public body creates a committee or subcommittee, that committee or subcommittee becomes a public body subject to the (Open Meetings Act) as well," Davis said in an interview. "The DDA board simply rubber-stamped the decision that the finance committee made behind closed doors. Government is supposed to be transparent."

The DDA is a public body with 13 members, including Mayor Mike Duggan, other city officials and some from the business community. The board has a role in many major local economic development projects, such as the new hockey arena, which the DDA owns and allows the Red Wings to operate. The finance committee is not listed on the authority's website. The committee's members are John Naglick, deputy CFO for the city of Detroit; David Blaszkiewicz, of the Detroit Investment Fund; Sonya Delley, Detroit corporation counsel Melvin "Butch" Hollowell, and Stephen Ogden, of Rock Ventures.

The Pistons' move to downtown is expected to cost an additional $34.5 million in public money on top of taxpayer money already being used for Little Caesars Arena.

The agreement approved by the DDA -- known as a memorandum of understanding -- is preliminary. Final details still must be approved by the DDA, the Detroit City Council and the National Basketball Association.

John Roach, spokesman for Duggan, referred questions about the lawsuit to the DDA.

DDA spokesman Bob Rossbach e-mailed the following statement to the Free Press: "The Detroit Downtown Development Authority has not been officially notified of a lawsuit, and in general it does not comment on pending litigation. The DDA does reaffirm that, as it conducts its business, it meets all the requirements of the state of Michigan’s open meeting and other applicable laws."

The Pistons deal has resurrected transparency concerns about the DDA, in part, because the authority is staffed by the nonprofit Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, which is exempt from public records laws.

Davis said he's not against the Pistons moving downtown; his goal is to make sure the DDA follows the law. If the memorandum of understanding is invalidated, as his lawsuit requests, the deal would have to be restarted -- this time in the public's view, he said.

A former school board member in Highland Park, Davis was convicted in 2014 of embezzling $200,000 from the cash-strapped school district. He spent 10 months in jail.

The DDA finance committee's private meeting to discuss the Pistons deal apparently was not unique. Davis said meeting minutes for the DDA board indicate the committee meets on a regular basis. When Davis asked DDA staff about the committee's next meeting date, he said he was told the meetings are not open to the public. He said he also was told the committee does not keep meeting minutes. In one encounter with a DDA staff member described in the lawsuit, Davis said he was told that the finance committee is advisory and exempt from the state's Open Meetings Act.

In addition to invalidating the Pistons memorandum of understanding, Davis' lawsuit seeks to prevent the finance committee from meeting in private any further.

Financial details are still being worked out for the Pistons' move to the Red Wings' new arena. The memorandum of understanding limits new public investment to $34.5 million that will be generated by refinancing and extending $250 million in public bonds previously issued to help pay for the arena's construction. The funds will pay for NBA locker rooms, floor seating and other changes to accommodate basketball.

The arena bonds are to be paid off using property tax collections the DDA captures for economic development. No funding from the city of Detroit's general fund will be used, according to a term sheet the DDA provided.

Contact Joe Guillen: 313-222-6678, jguillen@freepress.com or on Twitter @joeguillen.