Greenfield uses the courts to try to silence a pair of aggrieved ex-employees.

This week’s cover story, by the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which advocates for free speech and government transparency in the digital age, chronicles the nonprofit’s annual “Foilies” awards. The Foilies recognize “bad actors who attempted to thwart the quest for truth” and calls out “the most ridiculous examples of incompetence by government officials” who handle public records.

The Foilies are a natural for Monterey County governments (oh, please, you all know who you are) and included on this year’s Foilies list: The little South County city of Greenfield, over its attempt to prevent the Weekly from publishing documents related to the firing of City Manager Jaime Fontes and Community Services Director Michael “Mic” Steinmann. Fontes claims he was fired because he tried to keep the city council from circumventing its authority as it related to his managing of Steinmann, who maintains he was fired because he brought the cannabis industry to town against the wishes of the mayor and at least one councilman. The documents the Weekly published included memos sent from Greenfield’s city attorney to the mayor and council, warning they faced getting themselves into legal trouble if they didn’t knock off their bad behavior, like telling Fontes in writing that Steinmann had to go.

Boy, was that attorney right.

Fontes and Steinmann, by the way, are both attorneys themselves, and in October, just a month or so after Greenfield dragged the Weekly into court to try to keep us from using the documents from that anonymous source, they sued the city, its then-mayor, Jesus OlveraGarcia, and former councilmembers Lance Walker (now the mayor) and Leah Santibanez (who didn’t run for re-election). As their lawsuit wends its way through superior court, Fontes and Steinmann face a hearing on March 15, as the city of Greenfield has filed what’s known as an anti-SLAPP motion against them.

SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation – a lawsuit filed in retaliation for speaking out on a public issue – such as the official misconduct alleged in Fontes’ and Steinmann’s lawsuits – or some type of controversy. An anti-SLAPP motion counters a SLAPP lawsuit filed based on the right of free speech in connection with a public issue.

In the Greenfield case, not only are the defendants asking that Fontes’ and Steinmann’s lawsuits be dismissed, they’re also asking Fontes and Steinmann to pay the city’s legal bills – on the basis of the claim that their suits are unjustly silencing the public process. (Kind of what theWeekly’s attorney, Kelly Aviles, did in our own lawsuit – Greenfield slapped us by trying to get an injunction preventing us from publishing, we slapped back, a judge slapped them around and the city wrote a fat check for Aviles’ work.)

As Steinmann puts it, the basis of the city’s motions against him and Fontes is this: “They’re saying anything a councilmember says is protected by the First Amendment.” And in their filing, Greenfield attorney Ellen Lyons writes that Fontes and Steinmann are trying to prevent the city, OlveraGarcia, Santibanez and Walker from exercising their constitutional rights to say whatever they want, in public or in writing, about their employees.

If only their own city attorney hadn’t already told them it doesn’t work that way.

Steinmann was authorized by the city to develop and oversee a legal cannabis program, and he took to that mission like a duck to water. But it became a huge political issue: Walker opposed it, former Mayor John Huerta, who was ultimately recalled, got into the middle of Steinmann’s work and when OlveraGarcia came into office, he stated his election and personal religious convictions gave him a “mandate” to get rid of the city’s legal cannabis program, which had already recruited businesses and given out permits. He stated Steinmann was “corrupt,” according to the lawsuit, and told Fontes, “Mic has to go and it reflects on you as the new manager if he does not.”

Lyons didn’t return a call requesting comment. But for great political theater with high stakes (and dollar amounts), this one starts at 9am Friday, March 15, in Dept. 15 of Monterey County Superior Court.

MARY DUAN writes Local Spin for the Weekly. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com or follow her at twitter.com/maryrduan