A lawsuit against the City of Natchez over the city’s decision to sign a 15-year lease option with a developer to take over the former depot building on the bluff was dismissed.

But resident Gwen Ball’s concerns remain worth discussion.

Natchez Mayor Butch Brown suggested the lawsuit was “baseless,” but we disagree.

A person only has to watch the video of the Natchez Board of Aldermen meeting late last year to see the problem.

Both the mayor and the city attorney downplayed — to the aldermen and to the public — the matter.

Few people in the room — including some of the aldermen — seemed to understand that the city was simultaneously declaring a city-owned property surplus and agreeing to enter into a agreement that ultimately led to a short-term lease with an option on a much longer term lease at some point in the future.

While the court may have tossed the lawsuit on legal grounds, from a spirit of the law perspective, only a handful of people understood just what was happening on the depot deal.

That is counter to the city’s obligation to keep the public informed on matters that affect the city, its residents and its property.

The city should have more carefully and more openly discussed what was happening so no citizen and no aldermen could later come back and say, “What just happened?”

We hope the city fully and thoroughly discusses the details of the long-term contract when it comes up in the future. The public deserves to be involved, not excluded from important decisions.