A second complaint has been filed in the ongoing controversy concerning an August 10 Frankfort City Commission meeting during which Frankfort city manager Keith Parker was dismissed.

The complaint, filed by commission candidate Kyle Thompson, mirrors The State Journal's allegations — leveled in an earlier complaint — of an illegal series of less than quorum meetings to secure votes to terminate Parker.

The State Journal's complaint, which the city denied, is on appeal to the Kentucky Attorney General and an open meetings decision is expected early next week.

It is likely that Thompson's complaint will yield the same denial since neither the commissioners nor the mayor deny that a series of less than quorum meetings occurred.

Their denial of a violation of the open meetings law is premised on their lack of intent to circumvent the law, a statutory carve out for education of members on "nonpublic business," and the absence of evidence that they reached a consensus or made a commitment to vote prior to the August 10 meeting.

Thompson's complaint identifies additional proof that the mayor "had three votes" to fire Parker, confirming a statement by Parker that Commissioner Scott Tippett told him prior to the August 10 meeting at which he was dismissed that May "had three votes" to fire him.

As a means of remedying the alleged violation of the open meetings law, Thompson proposes that the city void its vote to fire Parker and thereafter reinstate him — higher stakes, indeed, than those proposed by The State Journal.

It is unclear what incontrovertible proof Thompson has beyond that available to The State Journal at the time of its appeal, but proof of the commission members' intent to avoid the open meetings law is, in this context, critical to a successful outcome.