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03/12/07
Sunshine Week 2007
Duo
says waiting three years for purchase orders
EDITOR'S NOTE: Sunshine Week, in which media organizations
and others bring attention to the public's right to know,
begins Sunday.
By JOHN McCARTHY
Associated Press Writer
Three years ago two women in a tiny northeast Ohio village
asked to look at village purchase orders to learn if taxpayers
are getting their money's worth.
Julie Kelley and Judy Moyer say they are still waiting for
many of the records, a charge officials deny.
They have sued the village of Mogadore, which in Ohio is the
only avenue for those who believe public bodies have not satisfied
their public records requests.
Ohio is one of 13 states where a civil lawsuit is the only
recourse. In other states, public bodies can be charged with
a criminal offense. Last year the state revamped its public
records law, requiring more training of government employees
in responding to records requests.
No trial date has been set in the Mogadore suit filed in Summit
County Common Pleas Court, which seeks release of all the
records. The two women and the village of 4,200 have been
trying to reach a settlement.
Moyer and Kelley, whom their attorney describes as government
watchdogs, had asked to see 8,356 pages of records under state
public records law that say governments must release most
records in a "reasonable" period of time. Some documents,
such as personnel records or business filings that could benefit
a company's competitor, are exempt.
"We wanted to see how they were spending our sewer money,"
Moyer said.
They first asked for the purchase order for a $54,000 real
estate transaction and the village didn't produce it, said
Jacquenette Corgan, one of their attorneys.
She said about 1,900 of the requested documents have not been
released.
"My clients have no idea where some of the money has
gone," Corgan said.
The pair said many of the records the village has turned over
are computer printouts -- not copies of the originals -- and
that they don't trust the accuracy of the sheets.
The village has given them all of the records they have requested,
said Mogadore law director Lawrence Bach. Bach says the computer
printouts are the purchase orders because the orders were
made electronically.
Mogadore gets a steady stream of records requests and has
just two full-time employees who try to fill them promptly,
Bach said.
"As soon as they get them, they try to respond to them
as soon as possible," he said.
Timothy Smith, director of the Ohio Center for Privacy and
the First Amendment at Kent State University, who has worked
on the Mogadore case, said few people go to court to obtain
records.
The Ohio Supreme Court usually sides with those seeking records,
said David Marburger, an attorney who often represents newspapers
in records cases.
Corgan said the village should be liable under a state law
that requires public bodies to pay $1,000 for each eligible
requested record they do not turn over.
Last year the Supreme Court ruled that an $860,000 fine was
legal against Akron for destroying time sheets that documented
the overtime of two secretaries. The decision said that the
860 time sheets were each an individual document under the
state's open records law and not part of a bigger record.
It was the largest fine ever awarded under state law dealing
with destruction of records.
Kelley and Moyer are not strangers to village officials, although
this is their first lawsuit, Bach said. He would not comment
on what other issues they have taken before the village.
"They have accused the village officials of denying them
their constitutional right," Bach said of the previous
disputes.
Corgan said the women are not prone to hassling village officials.
"They did not do this lightly," she said.
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On the Net:
Ohio public records law: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID126_HB_0009
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