COLUMBUS, Ohio – Like those in most of Ohio’s 88 counties, central Ohio public employees asked to provide public records during a statewide test of Ohio’s open records laws in April followed the law more closely than during a similar audit 10 years ago.
EXTRA: Learn more about the law and how to make records requests.
Statewide, requests were granted in nine of every 10 requests, a much higher compliance rate than a decade ago.
Records requested included meeting minutes, restaurant inspections, birth records, a mayor’s budget, school superintendents’ pay, police chief pay and police incident reports.
“It’s a meaningful improvement over what was found 10 years ago,” said Dennis Hetzel, executive director of the Ohio Newspaper Association.
The audit was sponsored by the Ohio Coalition for Open Government of ONA. It began April 21 and, in most counties, was completed within days.
Newspaper, television and radio reporters, including those from this website, served as auditors in all 88 Ohio counties. Auditors didn’t identify themselves as reporters when making requests to ensure the same experience as a typical citizen seeking public records.
None of the requests for public records in Franklin or the surrounding counties was denied. That is a significant improvement over the 2004 audit, when 80 percent of the requests made in Fairfield County officials, 60 percent in Pickaway County and 50 percent in Madison County were turned down.
Franklin and Delaware county workers denied 40 percent of the request 10 years ago. One-third of the requests were turned down in Licking and Union counties during the 2004 audit.
Statewide, 90 percent of requests were granted either immediately, over time or with some conditions, compared with 70 percent a decade ago, according to audit results. Successful requests for superintendents’ compensation and school treasurers’ phone bills saw the biggest jumps, with compliance rising from about one of every two requests to nine of every 10 requests this year.
Not every encounter went smoothly. Two-thirds of the requests were denied in Crawford, Montgomery and Scioto counties, 60 percent in Greene County and 40 percent in Cuyahoga and Lucas counties.
A clerk filled a request for county commissioners’ meeting minutes in Clinton County but summoned a sheriff’s deputy after the auditor declined to give his name. Several school districts required auditors to fill out a public records request form, a violation of Ohio law which does not require a written request, identification or the reason for the request.
The attorney general’s office, which conducts mandatory three-hour public records training for Ohio elected officials, regularly reminds officials of the law regarding requests, said Damian Sikora, chief of the office’s Constitutional Offices Section.
“Sometimes there’s a little bit of a disconnect between some of the people taking the request and the office holders themselves,” he said.
State Auditor David Yost, whose office randomly samples municipalities’ open records compliance, said he was troubled not to see 100 percent compliance with requests for things such as a superintendent’s compensation or police chief’s pay.
The audit turned up some problems with the delivery of information electronically, with many auditors having trouble finding useable email addresses in rural counties.
The audit follows a decade of uneven developments for advocates of open records.
Ohio’s 2004 concealed weapons law, for example, shielded the names of permit holders but contained a generous provision for reporters. Lawmakers later restricted the law to allow reporters to view the records but not make copies.
More recently, lawsuits have challenged Gov. John Kasich’s creation of the state development department with JobsOhio, a privatized job creation office not subject to the open records laws.