ATHENS COUNTY, Ohio — On their face, Ohio’s sunshine laws don’t seem terribly complicated.
The Ohio Public Records Act (ORC 149.43), passed in 1963, says that public bodies must keep records of their activities and allow anyone to view them. The Ohio Open Meetings Act (ORC 121.22), passed in 1954, says that government entities must give sufficient notice of meetings and conduct its business in front of the public.
But the Sunshine Law Manual released by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost this week — intended to educate the public on the state’s open government requirements — is 150 pages long and annotated with copious footnotes referring to legal opinions. (Ohio is one of many states that place the burden of enforcement on the public via the courts.)
Ohio’s Auditor of State reviews sunshine compliance when it performs financial audits of government entities. The Independent’s review of data from the auditor’s office found that nearly two-thirds of Athens County government bodies and agencies didn’t comply with the law in some way, some for multiple years. About half of the county’s 56 public entities employ at least one of the seven best practices established by the state auditor.
The most common reasons for noncompliance are not having records policies posted in all locations, absence of a records retention policy or schedule, and failure to have all elected officials trained. That’s “not unusual,” said Marc Kovac, a spokesperson for Auditor of State Keith Faber, adding that these problems “can be seen among entities around the state.”
Local officials who spoke with the Independent said they’re not trying to deliberately subvert the law; there’s just so much to remember and keep track of.
“You can very easily get rolled up for some of that stuff,” said York Township Trustee Tim Warren. “It’s not like you’re trying to hide something.”
Some failures identified in the auditor data are simple errors. Auditors said that Waterloo Township trustees voted on employee raises during an executive session on Sept. 4, 2019. But Kimberly Russell, the township’s fiscal officer, said that the trustees actually voted in open session.
“When I typed the minutes I just put the reference to the wages in the wrong section of the minutes,” Russell said via email.
Auditors “inquire about the reasons for noncompliance and internal control failures,” Kovac said. “However, oftentimes management does not provide an explanation.”
That wasn’t the case in Waterloo Township, though.
“I did give [the auditor] a written explanation, but once you make a mistake, you live with it,” Russell said.
The state requires elected officials to undergo three hours of training in public records laws in every term. Both the attorney general’s office and the auditor’s office provide training online. Thirteen local entities haven’t met that standard — nearly all of them villages or townships.
“I think the biggest problem is that most of the trustees have jobs during the day, and the trainings are during the day,” Warren said. “And there’s a lot of older trustees who don’t even touch computers.”
Turnover on village councils can make it difficult to keep track of who’s been trained and who hasn’t, said Amesville Mayor Gary Goosman.
“We just lost track of where we were in that cycle of who has been trained,” he said. “And it’s not [as if] you’ve been trained once and you’re good forever. So they get re-elected and they forget, and we forget, and it falls in between the cracks.”
The state does not issue reminders to elected officials, even though the attorney general posts attendance reports for its trainings online.
“It is the responsibility of those charged with governance and management to understand the law and achieve compliance,” Kovac said.
