Stay with us here. Two years ago, Cincinnati City Manager Harry Black was in the process of getting fired by the mayor. So five members of Cincinnati City Council — P.G. Sittenfeld, Greg Landsman, Chris Seelbach, Tamaya Dennard and Wendell Young — texted among themselves about their plan to address the situation. That’s a majority of council talking with each other outside a public meeting, which, it turns out, is against Ohio’s open meetings laws. Under pressure, the City of Cincinnati released some of those messages, and a conservative activist sued to get others. They revealed some petty name-calling and some chatter about city business. The result: a $200 fine for each council member plus a $10,000 fine for one accused of deleting his messages. The biggest expense, though: a whopping $90,000 in legal fees to the law firm representing the conservative activist. Oops.