Court to review lethal drug records Ohio wants to shield

From The News Tribune

Ohio's prison system must produce records about lethal drugs it wants shielded from public view for justices on the state Supreme Court to review privately as part of an open records dispute, the court ruled.

At issue is a lawyer's request for multiple records about Ohio's lethal injection drugs, including who made them and when they expire, and whether a state secrecy law prohibits that information from release.

The high court ordered the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction on Dec. 29 to provide the records for justices to review within 10 days.

Among other disputed documents are correspondence related to Ohio's efforts to obtain those drugs, and correspondence from the prison system to or from any manufacturers.

The open records complaint was brought on behalf of Elizabeth Ochs, a Denver lawyer whose firm, Hogan Lovells, previously represented a Virginia death row inmate challenging the constitutionality of that state's lethal drugs. Killer Ricky Gray was executed in January 2017 for killing a family in 2006.

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Lawsuit claims Kidron Volunteer Fire Department should be subject to Ohio’s Open Meetings Act

From The Independent

Three Wayne County men have filed suit asking that the Kidron Volunteer Fire Department be declared a public agency subject to Ohio’s Open Meetings Act.

The Kidron Volunteer Fire Department, and its operation, is once again under scrutiny.

Three Wayne County men have gone to court, arguing that the department, a nonprofit agency that receives public funding, is not a private agency.

Earl Miller, of Dalton; Mark Greer, of Lawrence Township; and Jedd Sprunger, of Dalton filed a second lawsuit in September in Wayne County Common Pleas Court seeking to have the department declared a public body that must hold open meetings and advertise its meeting schedule. The lawsuit asks that the department be ordered to comply with Ohio’s Open Meetings Act.

Ohio’s Sunshine Law requires public bodies to hold open meetings, and offers specific reasons for allowing public entities to meet behind closed doors.

The same men, plus a fourth person, had filed a lawsuit early this year in the Ohio Supreme Court alleging the department did not comply with requests for financial documents, minutes and other information the group considered to be public records.

The men argued in court documents that the fire department has a legal duty to provide the requested information because “both fire prevention and EMS are defined as governmental functions.”

The fire department settled the public records case by agreeing to produce documents requested in the future, according to a news release from law firm representing the men. However, the department maintained it was not subject to the Open Meetings Act.

James Matthews, an attorney with Baker, Dublikar, Wiley & Matthews in North Canton, represents the Wayne County men. He said the fire department believes it does not have to hold open meetings because it’s a private fire company.

Matthews said the department “functions largely off of tax money and also public grants. It’s our position that, since the board has agreed it is structured under the Ohio Revised Code, that it does have to comply with open meeting requirements.”

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Florida officials indicted in public records scandal

From The Miami Herald

In a move that should send a chill down the spines of thousands of elected officials in Florida, former Martin County Commissioner Anne Scott, a retired judge originally from Chicago, and current Commissioner Ed Fielding were booked Tuesday night into the county jail after being indicted in a public records scandal that already cost taxpayers upward of $25 million.

Scott, 69, who lives in Hobe Sound and lost her seat after one term in November, and Fielding, 73, were charged with two counts each of failure to permit inspection and copying of public records.

Each count is a misdemeanor that could, at worst for them although unlikely, see the elected officials spend up to a year in jail.

The arrests came hours after another sitting commissioner, Sarah Heard, was charged with a noncriminal violation of the same statutes, a set of laws that force public officials to surrender records of communications with other politicians, staff members and the public. Heard’s charge is a civil violation akin to a parking ticket, and she faces fines of up to $500.

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Interactive pipeline map launched to empower Ohio citizens

From Richland Source

The Sierra Club Ohio Chapter has launched an interactive map of proposed fracked gas pipelines coming to the state. The project was developed by the Chapter while responding to the over 100 environmental laws broken by ET Rover Pipeline since April.

The government websites that house documents pertaining to pipeline proposals can be difficult to navigate. In the case of ET Rover, thousands of documents are uploaded to this case at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission portal making gathering basic information on the pipeline difficult for the majority of people.

There is crucial information that is just not available to the general public without advanced knowledge of topography and GIS understanding.

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What Louisiana can learn from Ohio

From The Town Talk

James Carville, Louisiana’s best known political consultant, once suggested a grand swap between Minnesota and the Bayou State. We’ll handle the cooking for them, Carville said, as long as they come down here and take over our finances. 

Turns out Carville wasn’t far off from the magic equation. Just substitute Ohio for Minnesota, and scratch that part about all of us having to do the cooking.

So what does Ohio have that we don’t?

Well, the Buckeye State has a policy model that the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry plans to make a priority in the next regular session. The Louisiana chapter of Americans For Prosperity has also already labeled it as a top issue for 2018.

Treasurer John Schroder has been investigating similar concepts, and officials at the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association view it as an avenue for the government to rebuild goodwill with the public. Even Gov. John Bel Edwards is said to be "open" to the idea, and the Louisiana Budget Project likes it as well. 

It’s called the Ohio Checkbook, although in Louisiana a mostly-conservative coalition is pushing to rebrand it as the "Louisiana Ledger" for implementation here. It’s basically a super-charged website that allows anyone to track and investigate spending by the state, local governments, school districts, pension systems and other entities. 

Louisiana already has something somewhat similar called LaTrac. But it’s a clunky interface created roughly a decade ago, and it only applies to state departments. 

"Technology has changed a lot over the past 10 years and there are now a number of groups that want to put spending online for all levels of government," said LABI President Stephen Waguespack. "LaTrac was good and groundbreaking at the time, but it doesn’t take things to the next level like the Ohio Checkbook does."

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Ohio appeals court orders release of juror questionnaires

From The News Tribune

An Ohio appeals court on Wednesday ruled that a judge should release jury questionnaires used for the second trial of a white police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black motorist.

The three 1st District Court of Appeals judges found that Hamilton County Judge Leslie Ghiz should have released before trial began the 180 completed questionnaires used for jury selection, but removing identifying information including names and addresses. The questionnaires for Ray Tensing's retrial covered a wide range of topics from the potential jurors' relationships with police to their opinions on the Black Lives Matter movement.

"(Ghiz) made insufficient findings to support her decision to withhold the completed juror questionnaires in their entirety from public disclosure," Judge Russell Mock wrote. He was joined by Judges Marilyn Zayas and Dennis Deters.

The murder case was dismissed in July after the second mistrial for the former University of Cincinnati officer in the July 2015 shooting of Sam DuBose during a traffic stop. Federal authorities are reviewing the shooting for possible civil rights violations.

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Pike County may withhold portions of autopsy reports from press

From Court News Ohio

Portions of a county coroner’s autopsy reports that are part of an open homicide investigation are not public records and not available for public inspection until investigators release them, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled today.

In a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled the Pike County Coroner’s Office properly denied the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Columbus Dispatch unredacted versions of the autopsy reports for eight members of the Rhoden and Gilley families who were murdered in April 2016. Writing for the Court majority, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor stated the legislature amended the law regarding coroner records in 2009 to exempt “confidential law enforcement investigatory records (CLEIR),” and that the portions redacted by the coroner met the exemption.

In separate dissenting opinions, Justices Sharon L. Kennedy and Patrick F. Fischer wrote that lawmakers clearly made autopsy reports public records and the exception to disclosure for confidential law enforcement investigative records does not apply to the materials the coroner refused to reveal.

The chief justice’s opinion was joined by Justice William M. O’Neill. It was also joined by Eighth District Court of Appeals Judge Frank D. Celebrezze, sitting for Justice Judith L. French, and Twelfth District Court of Appeals Judge Robin N. Piper, sitting for Justice R. Patrick DeWine.

Justice Terrence O’Donnell joined both of the dissenting opinions.

Newspapers Seek Autopsy Reports
After the Rhoden family members were discovered murdered, the Hamilton County chief deputy coroner conducted autopsies on behalf of Pike County. The Pike County coroner’s office received final autopsy reports in July 2016. Within days of the delivery of the final autopsies, reporters from the Enquirer and Dispatch made public record requests of Pike County Coroner Dr. David Kessler, who denied the requests. Kessler cited R.C. 313.10, which references a portion of the Ohio public records act, R.C. 149.43. The coroner stated the final autopsy reports were exempt as CLEIR under the law.

Three days after the denial, the Enquirer sought a writ of mandamus from the Supreme Court to direct the coroner to release the reports, and weeks later, the Dispatch made a similar request. After both suits were filed, Kessler and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, which is leading the murder investigation, released redacted copies of the eight autopsies.

After the partial release, the coroner sought to dismiss the case, but the Court rejected the request and asked the parties to submit material and briefs to support their legal arguments. The Court did not conduct oral arguments for the cases.

The coroner submitted unredacted copies of the final reports to the Court to review under seal, and the Court denied a request by the Dispatch for access to the sealed reports. The Court issued its opinion today after its review of the reports.

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Ohio State hides stadium beer sales total

From The Columbus Dispatch

Ohio State University will not disclose its total beer sales at Ohio Stadium this football season, despite repeated requests from The Dispatch.

When asked for total beer sales from this season, Ohio State provided a total net revenue figure of more than $1.35 million. When asked specifically for the gross sales information, Ohio State spokesman Ben Johnson said the information was not public under its contract with its food and beverage vendor.

“In accordance with our contract with Levy Restaurants, gross sales information is not public,” Johnson said in an email last week.

When questioned by The Dispatch about entering into a contract that would potentially violate Ohio public-records laws, Johnson said Ohio State hadn’t done so.

“Public entities like Ohio State cannot enter into contracts that supersede Ohio Public Records law,” Johnson said in an emailed statement. “The university has not done that here, nor would we ever attempt to use contracts to avoid fulfilling our obligations under the public-records law.”

Johnson went on to say, however, that providing the gross beer sales, in addition to the net revenue already provided, would effectively disclose the percentage of the revenue that Levy Restaurants gives to the university, a figure which Johnson said is a trade secret and therefore exempt from disclosure under public records laws.

“Ohio State contracted with Levy Restaurants to provide concession services at Ohio Stadium, and the percentage of the revenue Levy gives to the university for its alcohol sales at Ohio Stadium is a trade secret of both Ohio State and Levy,” he said.

Claiming the trade-secret exemption is a “regular ruse” of many public entities to evade disclosing information, said Fred Gittes, a Columbus lawyer who has handled a variety of cases involving public records.

“Many public agencies use the trade-secret exemption as a device to avoid disclosing important meaningful financial information that taxpayers have a right to know,” he said. “Simply flippantly throwing out the word doesn’t justify it.”

Ohio State’s trade-secret claim in this case “sounds like a stretch,” Gittes said.

Further, Ohio State, in a 2013 news release announcing its contract with Levy Restaurants, stated its overall commission rate with the vendor at the time. The release stated that under the university’s contract with Levy, “the new blended commission rate will be 43 percent.”

To state that the revenue rate for beer sales from Levy is a trade secret conflicts with Ohio State’s previous disclosure of such a rate, said David Marburger, a Cleveland-area attorney and expert in state public-records law.

“If the supplier didn’t have a problem with it in 2013, why do they have a problem with it coming out now?” Marburger said. “The issue isn’t whether the number’s the same, the issue is whether the concept is the same, and the concept is the same.”

Ohio State entered into a seven-year contract with Levy in 2013, before the university began selling beer at Ohio Stadium.

Ohio State insists those contract details from 2013 are completely different from the gross beer sales and the revenue percentage Ohio State receives from it, which The Dispatch has requested. The percentage provided in 2013 is a blended rate representing an average, Johnson said, but the percentage the university receives from Levy differs depending on the situation.

“The general contract details disclosed in 2013 are an entirely different matter than the specific sales information you are now requesting, the release of which would, in fact, significantly compromise our negotiating position with outside entities for events at Ohio Stadium and the Schottenstein Center,” Johnson said in an emailed statement.

The Dispatch has requested Ohio State’s contract with Levy Restaurants.

“I’m skeptical of the notion that the company that supplies the beer has a bona fide trade secret in what the gross sales of beer are at Ohio State, unless that company is seeking to give Ohio State a special deal that it isn’t giving to other universities who have the same gross sales,” Marburger said. “If that’s the case, it shouldn’t be a trade secret.”

Ohio State claims no records in Mandel-Meyer ad campaign

From The Columbus Dispatch

A $2 million, taxpayer-funded ad campaign last year by Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel has already been criticized for a lack of transparency. Now Ohio State University says it, too, has no documents related to the commercials, co-starring head football coach Urban Meyer and filmed in the Buckeyes’ practice facility.

Mandel, a Republican, already has said there was no written communication among him and his senior staff about the cost of and payments for the commercials, the methodology of which earned a rebuke this year from the Republican-controlled legislature.

The commercials promoted the STABLE program, which allows families to set up tax-free accounts for disabled children.

They aired just before Mandel announced another run against Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. That prompted watchdogs to say they appeared to be taxpayer-funded campaign commercials featuring Mandel alongside Meyer, the state’s highest-paid public employee and arguably the most popular individual in Ohio.

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County must turn over girl’s autopsy records to father who killed her

From Court News Ohio

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office must turn over the autopsy records of an infant to her father, who is serving 15 years to life for the murder of the child, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled today.

A divided Supreme Court determined that a provision of Ohio public records law that requires
incarcerated persons, who request public records, to comply with certain requirements before being granted access to those records does not apply to the request of a deceased’s person’s next of kin to the coroner for records of the deceased person.

Justice Sharon L. Kennedy, the author of the Court’s lead opinion, wrote that the plain language of the statuteregarding coroner’s records is clear that the next of kin is entitled to the records. She concluded that if the legislature had intended to prevent the father from getting the records, then the General Assembly has the right to take note of today’s decision and amend the law.

Justice Kennedy’s decision granting Michael Clay the records was joined by Justices Terrence O’Donnell and R. Patrick DeWine.

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