Port Royal's defense of an illegal closed-door meeting held Wednesday to discuss the Port of Port Royal is flawed and includes a misinterpretation of state law, a freedom of information attorney said Friday.

The Port Royal Town Council, members of the town's redevelopment commission, Town Manager Van Willis, S.C. State Ports Authority board Chairman Colden Battey, board member Glen Kilgore and town planner Linda Bridges met in an executive session Wednesday to discuss the port, which is set to be shuttered and sold off to a private developer by the end of the year.

The gathering violated the S.C. Freedom of Information Act because the media weren't given proper notice of the meeting and the topic discussed doesn't fall within what's allowed to be kept out of the public light, Jay Bender, a Columbia-based attorney for the S.C. Press Association, said Thursday, an opinion that was the basis of an article in Friday's Beaufort Gazette.

Town officials shot back Friday with a letter to The Gazette signed by Mayor Sam Murray and Willis, claiming that the meeting was legal and citing a section of state law that allows "confidential proprietary information provided to a public body for economic development or contract negotiations purposes" to be kept secret.

But the section cited by the town deals with public records, Bender said, not public meetings.

"The Supreme Court of South Carolina has said clearly even if you have a record that may be exempt from mandatory disclosure that does not justify an executive session," he said.

Willis also said he planned to ask the town's attorney to pursue an injunction against The Gazette, preventing the paper from printing "this sort of thing" while there is a pending lawsuit. The Gazette sued Port Royal in February demanding that the town hand over an internal investigation of the police department's potential involvement in an illegal video poker operation.

"Some people, particularly my council members, are probably perceiving this as a vendetta against the town," Willis said.

Bender said Willis should "read the 1st Amendment before he talks to his lawyers so he won't look entirely foolish." He also said there is no "legitimate possibility" that a judge would prevent a newspaper from reporting on a government.

Town officials also claimed that they sent an agenda to The Gazette listing Wednesday's executive session, though none was received by the paper.

State law requires all public bodies to release notice of their meetings at least 24 hours ahead of time and include an agenda. The notices sent out by the town Tuesday and Wednesday announced a redevelopment commission meeting but didn't include an agenda or list an executive session.

After Wednesday's executive session, the redevelopment commission voted publicly on a plan to endorse 15 acres of open space for the port site, slightly more than the 13 acres proposed by Gov. Mark Sanford at a town hall meeting in Port Royal on May 12.

Joel Sawyer, spokesman for Sanford's office, said the decision to discuss the port project without input from the public conflicts with what the governor has tried to accomplish.

"From the beginning of this process the governor has been absolutely clear this should be done in the open," he said. "To go behind closed doors and come out and say 'this is what we think is best for you' is completely at odds with this administration's belief in open government."

Battey, a Beaufort attorney who has served on the Beaufort County Council, said an executive session might not have been necessary for the Wednesday meeting.

"I frankly don't know why it was an executive session to be honest with you," he said Friday. "I went in there to talk about the (port) plan."

On Thursday, Phil Fairbanks, chairman of the redevelopment commission, said a private developer attended the closed-door meeting, though neither he nor Willis would disclose the developer's name.

But Battey said a developer wasn't present at his meeting with the town.

The town "asked me to come and I came," he said. "I didn't meet with any developer."

Byron Miller, spokesman for the Ports Authority, added that "at no time was there a private developer behind closed doors with the town and the ports authority."

Battey said he and Kilgore, who couldn't be reached for comment Thursday or Friday, were asked to arrive at 6:15 p.m. for Wednesday's meeting. When they got there the two waited outside as the group met behind closed doors, Battey said. State and local officials have been working on completing a plan for the port site and expect to release that plan, with an attached development agreement, to private developers for bids. The plan has not been completed and a request for proposals hasn't been sent out to developers by the Ports Authority, which ultimately will sell the land.