Auditor's Sunshine Week report disappointing
Lead Summary
By
Rory Ryan-hcpress@cinci.rr.com
It's been eight years since the Ohio Coalition for Open Government published its investigative results on government offices' compliance with public records request.
While the coalition's work was more in-depth than a similar effort by Ohio Auditor Dave Yost, the results were sadly similar.
As we reported today, according to Yost, only 60 percent of Ohio cities responded promptly to a recent request for public records by the Auditor of State’s office in advance of Sunshine Week 2012 (March 11-17).
“The good news is, six out of 10 cities responded to our request within the reasonable time we specified,” Auditor Yost said. “Many of them did it in only one or two days, several even the same day.
“The bad news is, far too many cities failed timely response. A very few failed to respond at all, despite three additional requests.”
The Auditor of State’s office made a request for payroll records of all 247 cities in Ohio in October, as part of an effort to evaluate the format of electronic records and the ease of use and access to payroll records, which typically represent the majority of spending by local governments – close to 80 percent of revenues, in some cases.
In 2004, more than 90 people from Ohio newspapers, radio stations and universities conducted a statewide “sunshine audit” in all 88 Ohio counties, concluding that only about 50 percent of all requests were complied with.
“Those reporters made their requests as members of the public, in order to test the system,” Yost said. “Within the reasonable time, we were only 10 points better than 2004, and we asked as the Auditor of State. If my office gets only 60 percent, what is the response rate for a lone citizen?”
From personal experience, I can answer Mr. Yost's previous question: Not good.
On those past occasions during my earlier years when public records requests were ignored, I came up with an idea. (Maybe it wasn't an original idea, but it was mine.) If a public records request were denied, I would inform the public official of three things that were as certain as rain in southern Ohio:
• I will publish a Page 1 story about your denial of public records.
• I will publish a column about it.
• And I will – ultimately – receive the records as requested and publish that information.
We can do it the easy way or the hard way. It's up to you.
That approach has served me well for the past two decades in this business. But as Auditor Yost says, what about a private citizen's request? How many simply take "no" for an answer and forget about it?
The Ohio’s Public Records Act provides that "Every public office must promptly prepare and make available for inspection and copying all public records at all reasonable times, during regular business hours."
With few exceptions, virtually any record kept by a public office, whether it's paper, computer file, film or in any other form, is in fact a public record and available to the public.
A public official's salary? Public record. Revenues and expenses? Public records. Your grandson's speeding ticket? Yep, it's a public record.
Who can request a public record? Anyone.
Do you have to identify yourself? No.
Can a public agency ask for identification? Yes, but again, that's up to the individual. There's no legal mandate to identify yourself or explain why you want a particular record.
However, on the other side of the ledger, be civil about it. A little courtesy and respect goes a long way.
Keep in mind that those entrusted with the public's records do have other responsibilities. In those instances where you can be more specific about your request, do so. If all you really want to know is how much is spent in a certain area of a city or county budget, don't expect an auditor to kill a rainforest by printing reams of paper that you probably will not read. Be upfront with your request and you'll likely have positive results.
In fact, most public officials in Highland County are very good about complying with public records requests. Those who are less forthcoming simply may be in need of some practical education and application of the custodial records-keeping process.
Over the years, I have learned, too, that oftentimes a specific report has been delayed due to more pressing matters, particularly in law enforcement.
As I've written before, I still recall when a former Scioto County sheriff once asked me: "Do you want me to fill out a report for you or go stop a man from beating up his wife?"
Point taken.
When it comes to public officials complying with records requests, one of the best county prosecutors I've ever worked with in regard to the release of public information is David Kelley in Adams County. David's office has been consistently open and accessible, and he has advised other offices to follow the established guidelines in making public information available. He puts it very simply. "When someone asks me who my boss is, I tell them 'the 30,000 people living in Adams County.'"
Local auditors Bill Fawley and Gary Lewis are very good, too, as is Sheriff Ron Ward and Police Chiefs Nick Thompson and Tim Hester. (These just happen to be a few of the public officials that the newspaper routinely contacts. I'm confident others are equally compliant with such requests.)
As always, if you encounter difficulties in obtaining your records, just give us a call. We'll help let the Sun Shine In!
Rory Ryan is publisher of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]
While the coalition's work was more in-depth than a similar effort by Ohio Auditor Dave Yost, the results were sadly similar.
As we reported today, according to Yost, only 60 percent of Ohio cities responded promptly to a recent request for public records by the Auditor of State’s office in advance of Sunshine Week 2012 (March 11-17).
“The good news is, six out of 10 cities responded to our request within the reasonable time we specified,” Auditor Yost said. “Many of them did it in only one or two days, several even the same day.
“The bad news is, far too many cities failed timely response. A very few failed to respond at all, despite three additional requests.”
The Auditor of State’s office made a request for payroll records of all 247 cities in Ohio in October, as part of an effort to evaluate the format of electronic records and the ease of use and access to payroll records, which typically represent the majority of spending by local governments – close to 80 percent of revenues, in some cases.
In 2004, more than 90 people from Ohio newspapers, radio stations and universities conducted a statewide “sunshine audit” in all 88 Ohio counties, concluding that only about 50 percent of all requests were complied with.
“Those reporters made their requests as members of the public, in order to test the system,” Yost said. “Within the reasonable time, we were only 10 points better than 2004, and we asked as the Auditor of State. If my office gets only 60 percent, what is the response rate for a lone citizen?”
From personal experience, I can answer Mr. Yost's previous question: Not good.
On those past occasions during my earlier years when public records requests were ignored, I came up with an idea. (Maybe it wasn't an original idea, but it was mine.) If a public records request were denied, I would inform the public official of three things that were as certain as rain in southern Ohio:
• I will publish a Page 1 story about your denial of public records.
• I will publish a column about it.
• And I will – ultimately – receive the records as requested and publish that information.
We can do it the easy way or the hard way. It's up to you.
That approach has served me well for the past two decades in this business. But as Auditor Yost says, what about a private citizen's request? How many simply take "no" for an answer and forget about it?
The Ohio’s Public Records Act provides that "Every public office must promptly prepare and make available for inspection and copying all public records at all reasonable times, during regular business hours."
With few exceptions, virtually any record kept by a public office, whether it's paper, computer file, film or in any other form, is in fact a public record and available to the public.
A public official's salary? Public record. Revenues and expenses? Public records. Your grandson's speeding ticket? Yep, it's a public record.
Who can request a public record? Anyone.
Do you have to identify yourself? No.
Can a public agency ask for identification? Yes, but again, that's up to the individual. There's no legal mandate to identify yourself or explain why you want a particular record.
However, on the other side of the ledger, be civil about it. A little courtesy and respect goes a long way.
Keep in mind that those entrusted with the public's records do have other responsibilities. In those instances where you can be more specific about your request, do so. If all you really want to know is how much is spent in a certain area of a city or county budget, don't expect an auditor to kill a rainforest by printing reams of paper that you probably will not read. Be upfront with your request and you'll likely have positive results.
In fact, most public officials in Highland County are very good about complying with public records requests. Those who are less forthcoming simply may be in need of some practical education and application of the custodial records-keeping process.
Over the years, I have learned, too, that oftentimes a specific report has been delayed due to more pressing matters, particularly in law enforcement.
As I've written before, I still recall when a former Scioto County sheriff once asked me: "Do you want me to fill out a report for you or go stop a man from beating up his wife?"
Point taken.
When it comes to public officials complying with records requests, one of the best county prosecutors I've ever worked with in regard to the release of public information is David Kelley in Adams County. David's office has been consistently open and accessible, and he has advised other offices to follow the established guidelines in making public information available. He puts it very simply. "When someone asks me who my boss is, I tell them 'the 30,000 people living in Adams County.'"
Local auditors Bill Fawley and Gary Lewis are very good, too, as is Sheriff Ron Ward and Police Chiefs Nick Thompson and Tim Hester. (These just happen to be a few of the public officials that the newspaper routinely contacts. I'm confident others are equally compliant with such requests.)
As always, if you encounter difficulties in obtaining your records, just give us a call. We'll help let the Sun Shine In!
Rory Ryan is publisher of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]