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Cleveland
Plain Dealer...
Ohio
attorney general’s office creates new mediation program for public
records
disputes
By Aaron
Marshall
Wednesday,
June 20, 2012
COLUMBUS,
Ohio — Citizens having problems getting public records from government
agencies
can now turn to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office for a new forum to
resolve
the dispute.
Attorney
General Mike DeWine on Wednesday announced the formation of a public
records
mediation program.
The Ohio
Attorney General’s Public Records Mediation Program, which will be
overseen by
lawyers in the AG’s public records unit, is aimed at resolving disputes
over
public records requests that are alleged to have been improperly denied
or not
responded to in a reasonable amount of time.
“Frankly,
what we are trying to do is speed things up, save taxpayers’ money and
get the
people who want the information the actual information they want,” said
DeWine
in a phone interview. “Many times a request comes in and it’s a very
broad
request and the government entity is faced with denying the request or
spending
a ton of time and money trying to gather the records. We think a lot of
these
can get worked out, so that’s why we are doing it.”
Both
parties must agree to enter into the mediation program and the person
requesting the mediation retains the right to sue under Ohio’s open
records
law.
While
DeWine couldn’t put a timeframe on how quickly a typical case would be
resolved, he said speed would be of the essence.
“I told our
team we should only do this if we can do it quickly. Our intention is
to jump
on this right away as most of these cases aren’t horribly complex and
the legal
issues aren’t horribly complex.”
A spokesman
for DeWine said the goal would be to get an answer about whether both
parties
in a dispute would accept mediation within 10 days of the initial
complaint.
Dennis
Hetzel, executive director of the Ohio Newspaper Association, welcomed
the news
of DeWine’s new program, saying that unlike some other states, Ohio
doesn’t
have any avenue to force government bodies to cough up public records
without
bringing a lawsuit.
“If a local
government won’t give up a record, the only alternative is to hire a
lawyer and
go to court. Essentially, that makes it only for the well-heeled,” he
said. “Anything
we can do to make that situation better is probably going to be good
for open
government.”
Hetzel said
the program could be a “substantive improvement” in Ohio, where the
public
records law is increasingly restricted by state lawmakers who have
added new
exceptions to the law during each legislative session.
To request
mediation, go to the attorney general’s website, or contact the office
at
1-888-958-5088.
Read this
and other articles at the Cleveland Plain Dealer
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