Lakewood City Councilpersons Proposing Public Records Law

LAKEWOOD, OH — Two Lakewood City Councilpersons are set to introduce a new public records law on Monday night. The proposal would establish a public records chapter in Lakewood code.

The proposal is being introduced by Meghan George and Tristan Rader. The duo sent out a release on Monday morning announcing the proposal and saying they expected the legislation to be sent to committee for review.

“Having a chapter of our code dedicated to public records would not make Lakewood unique. We feel strongly that not only should we have a chapter in our code dedicated to the extremely important topic of public records, but that we continue to leverage technology to make the public records request process more transparent and easier to use," Rader and George said in a joint statement.

According to the release from the two councilpersons, the proposed law would establish the following protocols:

• Create a public records request web portal that is easy to use, up-to-date and interactive. The portal should allow the public to:
• Easily and quickly submit specific requests in one place
• Allow for anonymity
• Track requests in real time
• Fulfill the request in a timely manner
• Store all requests for review, reporting and public search
• Two-day response time to initially respond to a request
• Strengthen provisions around redactions and exemptions, to make sure we are withholding only what is absolutely necessary
• Appoint a city employee as Public Records Administrator
• Mandate public records training for top officials
• List types of records and information open to the public (non-exhaustive)

The city of Lakewood has been the subject of lawsuits filed by Brian Essi, a resident, pertaining to public records requests. The lawsuits have accused the city of withholding public documents, and failing to respond to requests in a timely manner.

In late December 2018, the Eight District Court of Appeals issued a decision on a years-long lawsuit between Essi and the city. The court denied requests for additional swaths of information to be released, but also ordered some redacted documents to be revealed.

That court commented on the peculiar nature of public records cases in Ohio, with competing laws compelling the release of records, and protecting the government from burdensome requests. On one hand, government records belong to the public, and on the other hand proving a negative (aka having to prove a record doesn't exist) is a daunting, near impossible task, the court said.

City officials released 27,000 pages of documents in connection to Essi's requests, a fact cited by officials who said they felt the city had met its obligation for public record requests. Some of the documents had redacted sections, however.