Website compares Ohio charter schools, districts

From The Columbus Dispatch Noting the current difficulty in finding information about charter schools and how they compare with traditional Ohio public schools, a progressive policy-research group and the state’s largest teachers union teamed up to create a website that allows for quick comparisons.

But charter-school advocates quickly criticized the site as “really misleading.”

Knowyourcharter.com allows people to search by traditional public-school district or charters to bring up a variety of academic performance, personnel and financial information. Calling up a public school district also brings up a list of all the charter schools that at least one student from that district attends.

Viewers can find out how the district’s performance index grade compares with charters, how much state money from that district goes to charter schools, and a variety of other data.

Reynoldsburg withholds substitutes’ names from ‘Dispatch,’ citing safety

From The Columbus Dispatch Are substitute teachers who cross the Reynoldsburg Education Association’s picket line in as much danger as police officers who have been threatened by drug and motorcycle gangs?

Reynoldsburg schools Treasurer Tammira Miller appeared to think so when she rejected an open-records request from The Dispatch for the list of substitute teachers who are replacing striking Reynoldsburg teachers. The newspaper wants to check the credentials of these public employees.

Teachers’ names are typically a public record. But Miller said the district has a duty to protect the safety of the substitute teachers.

In a letter rejecting our open-records request, she cited a Columbus case in which a judge said that an attorney for members of the Short North Posse drug gang could not receive personal information about the police officers who had arrested the gang members. And she cited a case in which a judge said that Cincinnati did not have to disclose the names of police officers who had been in a shootout with a motorcycle gang.

The only case she cited that involves substitute teachers who are replacing striking teachers was one from Strongsville in 2013 that is now before the Ohio Supreme Court. Strongsville refused to disclose the names of substitute teachers. An appeals court said that, unless the district could provide evidence that the substitutes were in danger, it had to release their names. Rather than release the names, the Strongsville district appealed.

Though we asked, Miller has yet to provide evidence that Reynoldsburg’s substitute teachers have been threatened.

Toledo Blade lawsuit over detention of two journalists by military security goes to mediation

From The Blade A federal lawsuit filed by The Blade against a variety of government officials over the detention of two journalists by military security outside a Lima tank plant was referred Monday for a mediation meeting.

Blade reporter Tyrel Linkhorn and photographer Jetta Fraser were detained outside the General Dynamics plant March 28 by military security personnel, who confiscated Ms. Fraser’s cameras and deleted pictures. The lawsuit states that Ms. Fraser and Mr. Linkhorn were unlawfully detained, that Ms. Fraser was unlawfully restrained and received unlawful threats of bodily harm, that the cameras were unlawfully confiscated and pictures unlawfully destroyed, and that the pair’s Constitutional rights were unlawfully prevented from being exercised.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court claims Ms. Fraser and Mr. Linkhorn’s First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights were deprived, as were their rights under the First Amendment Privacy Protection Act.

A conference on the case was held Monday and it was referred for mediation to Magistrate Judge Vernelis K. Armstrong on Oct. 9. If case is not settled on or before Oct. 15, another conference is set for Oct. 20 before Judge James G. Carr.

“At all material times, Plaintiffs Fraser and Linkhorn were present in places that were open to the public and in which Plaintiffs had a lawful right to be,” the lawsuit states.

“At all material times, Plaintiffs Fraser and Linkhorn were engaged in fully lawful and constitutionally protected conduct, observing and photographing subjects that were and are open to public view and that Plaintiffs had full legal and constitutional rights to observe and photograph.”

Blade attorney Fritz Byers declined to comment.

Reports on college crime are deceptively inaccurate

From The Columbus Dispatch The crime statistics being released by colleges nationwide on Wednesday are so misleading that they give students and parents a false sense of security.

Even the U.S. Department of Education official who oversees compliance with a federal law requiring that the statistics be posted on Oct. 1 each year admits that they are inaccurate. Jim Moore said that a vast majority of schools comply with the law but some purposely underreport crimes to protect their images; others have made honest mistakes in attempting to comply.

In addition, weaknesses in the law allow for thousands of off-campus crimes involving students to go unreported, and the Education Department does little to monitor or enforce compliance with the law — even when colleges report numbers that seem questionable.

The White House and some in Congress have noticed and are pushing for changes, including increased sanctions.

The law, known as the Clery Act, was enacted in 1991 to alert students to dangers on campus, but it often fails at its core mission, a joint investigation by The Dispatch and the Student Press Law Center found.

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Enquirer editorial: Public had right to see Wal-mart video

Editorial from The Cincinnati Enquirer Residents in our community – perhaps a good many of them – worry that law enforcement isn't on their side merely because of the color of their skin.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's recent decision to withhold video of Beavercreek police killing an African-American in Wal-Mart reinforced that perception. He said he didn't want to taint a potential case against the officers, but Iris Roley, a Bond Hill business owner, isn't buying it.

"I think it is a travesty that in 2014 the video was not released in a timely fashion so ... taxpayers could determine what actually happened," she said. "The grand jury was tainted because of all the misinformation that went out. The story through the media was in favor of the police."

She's right.

DeWine's office finally made the video available Wednesday after a grand jury declined to indict two officers involved in the shooting. The footage released doesn't show John Crawford III, 22, of Fairfield waving the pellet gun at customers, as police initially said. The segment, which lacks sound, doesn't show any indication that he heard police yelling to put the gun down, as authorities say they did.

It shows a man standing alone in front of a shelf, occasionally swinging a gun by his side while holding a phone to his ear. Then it shows him falling, shot, as police race toward him.

The young man's family is understandably outraged at the lack of an indictment, but we will withhold judgment on the grand jury's decision since we don't know the full case that was laid out, or not laid out. We do extend our condolences to Crawford's family and friends for the needless death of their loved one, and we welcome the investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Regardless of Beavercreek officers' culpability, the state's top law official failed both in his duty to serve all citizens equally and in his responsibility to uphold Ohio law.

Specifically, DeWine's refusal to release the video was in violation of the Public Records Act, Ohio Revised Code 149.43, according to Enquirer attorney John "Jack" Greiner. DeWine continues to insist the tape was shielded by an exemption, but he couldn't say exactly which exemption applied in a meeting with the Northwest Ohio Media Group on Wednesday.

Journalists call public records laws "Sunshine Laws" for a reason: The public's ability to know what its government is doing is a cornerstone of our democracy.

With each confrontation that leaves a young, unarmed black man dead at the hands of a police officer, law enforcement loses the confidence of more citizens. Withholding information – whether the name of the officer, as in Ferguson, Missouri, or a video here – erodes that trust even more.

"We get killed while walking; we get killed while standing on the road; now we get killed while shopping," Roley said. "I don't know what to tell little black children I see every day. It appears as if their life does not matter."

In Cincinnati, we've been patting ourselves on the back that we've gotten police-community relations right since Timothy Thomas' death in 2001 and the subsequent Collaborative Agreement. Since Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson in August, national media have written about what that St. Louis suburb could learn from Cincinnati.

But Roley, a member of the Black United Front that helped negotiate the collaborative, is heartbroken about the death just up the road in a Dayton suburb of a young man who was a son and a father.

"We're always one incident away from being a Ferguson," she said.

Is this OK? Or are we going to demand that officials like DeWine represent all of the people, not just the police?

Appeals court dismisses lawsuit against Olentangy Board of Education

From The Delaware Gazette A second court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a member of the Olentangy Board of Education who alleged that his colleagues violated the state’s open meeting laws.

The 5th District Court of Appeals upheld a Delaware County Common Pleas Court ruling that dismissed Adam White’s lawsuit against his fellow board members.

White alleges that a series of emails between the four other board members – who were trying to craft a response to a 2012 Columbus Dispatch editorial critical of a district policy – is a violation of Ohio law.

The editorial was in response to a policy the board adopted that required communications between board members and staff to pass through the superintendent or treasurer after White launched an independent investigation into expenditures of two of the district’s athletic directors. One later resigned and both were required to reimburse the district for improper spending.

The court cited a 2002 change in the state’s open meeting laws, which did not address electronic communication between members of a public body.

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Federal judge: Ohio won't bust lying politicians

From The Cincinnati Enquirer A federal judge has struck down Ohio's law forbidding lies in political campaigns, saying voters -- not the government -- should decide whether a campaign is telling the truth.

The 19-year-old Ohio law had banned falsehoods in campaigns and empowered the Ohio Elections Commission to determine whether disputed statements were true or false. But critics said the law prevented them from freely criticizing political candidates because they feared prosecution under Ohio's law against false claims.

"The answer to false statements in politics is not to force silence (by forbidding lies) but to encourage truthful speech in response, and to let the voters, not the Government, decide what the political truth is," Judge Timothy Black said Thursday in his ruling.

Quoting the TV drama "House of Cards," he said, "There's no better way to overpower a trickle of doubt than with a flood of naked truth."

The case came back to Black after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that an anti-abortion organization and a Cincinnati anti-tax group could challenge the law's constitutionality.

The conflict that led to the suit dates back to 2010.

The national anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List planned to buy a billboard accusing then-U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus of supporting taxpayer-funded abortions. Their logic? He voted in favor of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Driehaus said the allegation was a lie – he, in fact, ran as an anti-abortion Democrat – and filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission. With the threat of legal action looming, the billboard owner decided not to run the ad. Driehaus dropped his complaint after he lost his re-election bid, but not before the commission found "probable cause" in a preliminary review that Susan B. Anthony List had violated the state law.

The Reporters Committee is about to start suing people to help journalists

From The Columbia Journalism Review Fair warning, all ye who interfere with newsgathering: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is getting ready to sue you.

The organization has hired its first litigation director, Katie Townsend, to bring lawsuits around the country in cases that affect access to information for the press and public.

Although the RCFP has provided legal assistance to journalists for nearly 45 years—developing media law guides, filing amicus briefs, issuing statements, answering questions, making referrals to outside counsel—not since the 1980s has the RCFP itself been active as a litigant. It is re-entering that arena now to help fill a void created as news outlets, strapped for resources, have retreated from some legal battles.

“It’s in our blood,” said Bruce Brown, the group’s executive director. “This type of work is part of our history and mission, and now we’re doing all we can to enhance it—to use our expertise to ensure that journalists can gather and report the news without interference.”

The new position was created by rededicating funds that once supported a freedom of information director, who left the RCFP in 2013. To make the most of its resources, the organization will use several models to manage its litigation: handling cases in-house from start to finish; coordinating cases and dividing the labor with partners, such as law firms, law school clinics, or groups like the ACLU; and referring cases to outside counsel, the group’s favored approach for the past 25 years.

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Jack Greiner on the Walmart Cover Up

By Jack Greiner A young African American man named John Crawford was shot and killed recently in a Beaver Creek Ohio Walmart. The shooter was a Beaver Creek police officer. The events leading up to the shooting and the shooting itself was captured on Walmart surveillance video. That video runs continuously throughout the day and night.

Walmart turned the video over to authorities, and it’s now in the hands of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, an arm of the Ohio Attorney General, Mike DeWine.  In Ohio, a record maintained by a public office is a public record. The Walmart surveillance video fits that description. And it’s supposed to be produced on request of any member of the public.

But despite multiple requests by Mr. Crawford’s family and others, the BCI won’t release it.

Why? The BCI claims that since the video is now part of a criminal investigation, they don’t have to produce it. They say it’s exempt from production, along with every other scrap of paper in the BCI file because it’s exempt under the Confidential Law Enforcement Investigatory Record (“CLEIR”) exception. But with all due respect, they are wrong.

The CLEIR exception permits law enforcement to withhold a limited number of records under limited circumstances. Which means that just saying “it’s part of an investigation” doesn’t cut it. The record has to be part of an investigation, but it also has to disclose the identity of a confidential source, reveal a confidential investigatory techniques, uncover  an uncharged suspect or pose a risk of harm to someone by virtue of the release. And even if one of those factors apply, the record still needs to be released with the confidential information redacted. Here’s a brief we field recently in a similar case with BCI that discusses the law in more detail.

And one more thing.  Routine incident reports and 911 calls aren’t part of the investigation and aren’t subject to the CLEIR exception. The reason? Those reports kick off the investigation, but they’re not part of the investigation. SO a routine surveillance camera that runs 24/7 and happens to catch a shooting in my mind is an incident report. So the CLEIR exception doesn’t apply. And the BCI’s heavy handed approach in these matters is completely off base.

Want governor's correspondence? Be very specific

From The Columbus Dispatch The office of Republican Gov. John Kasich is advising Ohioans who want copies of communications and emails to specify a subject or topic or their request for public records is doomed to rejection as overly broad.

Lawyers for Attorney General Mike DeWine, who are defending Kasich and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor in a public records suit filed by the Ohio Democratic Party, provided the advice yesterday in an Ohio Supreme Court filing.

Their motion asked the justices to dismiss the Democrats’ suit, arguing it cannot succeed because the party failed to file a proper public records request and rejected the governor’s office invitations to specify exactly what it is looking for.

Citing prior Supreme Court rulings regarding overly broad requests, the motion says government has no responsibility to turn over all communications between office employees over the space of a year.

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Ohio's AG won't release video of police shooting at Walmart

From The Cincinnati Enquirer Ohio's attorney general said he won't publicly release surveillance video of a man fatally shot by police at a Dayton-area Wal-Mart despite a growing effort by family and supporters on social media calling for it.

Facebook groups and online petitions have been created pushing for the release of the video of police killing of John Crawford III inside of a Wal-Mart store in the Dayton suburb of Beavercreek on Aug. 5, according to the Dayton Daily News.

Crawford was fatally shot by officers responding to a 911 call that a man was waving a rifle in the store. They said Crawford refused orders to drop the weapon, which turned out to be a pellet rifle he had taken off a store shelf.

His supporters say the public has a right to know what happened. People and groups ranging from the president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus to the Rev. Al Sharpton's civil rights group National Action Network have called for the tape's release.

Crawford was black. The officers involved in his shooting are white.

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The public's right to know

By Laura Arenschield The Columbus Dispatch  When I first took this job, environmental activists and other reporters warned me that Ohio’s state agencies could be tough to deal with, that they sometimes act as though they would rather protect oil and gas companies than the people of Ohio.

I don’t know whether that’s actually the intention of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which is the agency that oversees fracking and drilling and all its related activities here. But I get the frustration.

In June, I asked for a stack of public records related to fracking from ODNR. These are important records, we think here at the newspaper, because they have a lot to do with Ohioans’ health and safety. For the last three months, the agency’s public information officers – the people who are supposed to be helping us all have access to information about ODNR’s activities — have told me that they were working on the request, or that the request was with their legal team for review.

Three months seemed like a long time to us here, so this morning, I, another reporter, and my editor had a conference call with ODNR’s chief lawyer to see what the holdup might be.

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Court rules records of threats against Kasich are not public

From The Columbus Dispatch Police records involving threats against Gov. John Kasich can remain secret because their release could compromise the governor’s safety, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

State Highway Patrol records that the Department of Public Safety refused to turn over to the liberal-leaning blog Plunderbund are exempt from release as security records, the court ruled.

The justices’ unanimous ruling could affect a case in which the Ohio Republican Party sued Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ed FitzGerald over his claiming the security exemption to withhold records.

“The records at issue involve direct threats against the highest official in the executive branch of Ohio government,” the court wrote in its unsigned opinion.

“Information included in these threats ... is used for protecting and maintaining the security of the governor and his staff and family and for maintaining the secure functioning of the governor’s office.”

Plunderbund turned to the Supreme Court after public-safety officials declined two years ago to turn over limited records involving threats against Kasich.

The blog argued that the security exemption involving a “public office” applied only to records involving the placement of cameras, building blueprints, the scheduling of security personnel and similar matters.

The court disagreed, saying that the exemption to the public-records act also involves the personal security of the governor and the need to protect him from “attack, interference, sabotage or terrorism.”

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Do ESPN and the Mid-American Conference have a secret contract?

From When Journalism Fails Sports reporters across the country reported on ESPN's new television and digital media contract with the Mid-American Conference (MAC).    As the Columbus Dispatch reports, it's a 13-year contract worth more than $100 million with each university getting 670-grand a year.

What are the details of that contract?   What do the universities have to do?

It's a secret.

That's right, the terms of  a 13-year contract worth millions with public universities is secret. The chief operating officer of the MAC, Bob Gennarelli says he cannot provide a copy of the contract because it is "proprietary" and says all universities have signed "confidentiality agreements."

But confidentiality agreements do not trump public records law.   Under Ohio law, all contracts with public agencies are public records and must be provided when requested. It's not legally permissible to circumvent the public records law by adding a confidentiality clause.   One of my best students is currently asking the Kent State University Athletic Department for every contract Kent State has involving ESPN.

What are the details?   What does the university have to do under the terms of the 13-year deal between ESPN and the MAC?  Keep in mind, most university athletic departments lose millions of dollars every year.  Is the new ESPN deal a good deal or a bad one for member universities?   The only way to answer that is to review the details of the contract. Hopefully, my student reporter will have those soon.   If not, he'll have an excellent story on sports budget secrecy at public universities.

Lyft, Uber want to keep Columbus license applications secret

From The Columbus Dispatch Uber and Lyft want to keep parts of their applications to become licensed transportation companies in Columbus under wraps.

The two San Francisco-based companies wrote in court filings that all or parts of applications they filed with the city last month contain proprietary trade secrets that are exempt from Ohio’s public-records laws.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Kimberly Cocroft granted Uber Technologies Inc.’s request for a temporary restraining order that bars Columbus from releasing three pages of the company’s insurance policy on Friday.

Lyft Inc. filed for a similar order yesterday that would shield its entire application, plus the applications submitted by potential drivers.

Neither company could be reached for comment.

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Democrats sue Mandel for public records

From The Columbus Dispatch The Ohio Democratic Party claims in an Ohio Supreme Court filing that Republican Treasurer Josh Mandel illegally has refused to turn over public records sought by the party.

The action filed yesterday asks the justices to order Mandel to turn over records the Democrats sought in a July 18 request that they say has not even been acknowledged.

Democrats want copies of bids and contracts concerning the telephone “town halls” that Mandel conducts with Ohioans and correspondence involving Benjamin Suarez, a convicted Mandel and GOP donor.

“Mandel’s unwillingness to provide any transparency or accountability of his office is as unconscionable as it is hypocritical,” Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said in a statement.

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Local officials get lesson in public records, open meetings

From The Bellefontaine Examiner Being reasonable and erring on the side of transparency are the key elements when handling public records requests, a state official told a group of about 150 people, most of whom were local public employees.

“If both sides are reasonable — and 99 percent of the time they are — it is possible to work out any issues regarding (public records) requests without any issues,” Max Gerwin of State Auditor Dave Yost’s Open Government Unit said during the Wednesday afternoon training session.

“Most of the time people are looking for something specific and any tension that exists is just because they aren’t exactly sure what to ask.”

Mr. Gerwin came to Bellefontaine at the request of City Auditor Jack Reser and Logan County Auditor Michael E. Yoder to present the three-hour session on Ohio’s public records and open meeting laws, which all elected officials are either required to attend or send a delegate to attend in their stead.

His presentation covered a wide range of topics in public records and retention, but he was only able to briefly touch on open meetings because of time constraints.

“It’s always good to keep up on the legal aspects and laws,” Bellefontaine City Councilman Jerry Pitzer said after the meeting. “As a city, I think we’re in compliance with what we are doing as far as public records go. It also reaffirmed some things about open meetings and executive sessions that are good to know.”

Having an event in Bellefontaine was also a convenience to many small town officials like West Mansfield Administrator and Fiscal Officer David Evans.

“When I first started, I didn’t know anything about public records, but this is the third time I’ve done this, so I have pretty much heard most of it now,” the six-year public servant said. “There’s certainly a good reason to have them, and I was glad this one was so close.”

Mr. Gerwin began by explaining what a public entity was and used examples to show that many private enterprises — including contractors paid to build a building for the government — are subject to public record disclosure.

Essentially anyone keeping records for the government or a government-funded project are most likely required to produce records when asked to do so.

And records in the electronic age are not just limited to papers on file in cabinets, he said. Electronic records, including information from public databases and emails — sometimes even those from a public employee’s personal email account or cellular telephone — can be considered public records.

He stressed that it doesn’t take a journalist to ask, either. In fact, anyone can make a public records request and the agency receiving the request cannot ask the person’s name, intentions or require that they submit the request in writing.

But usually an open line of communication with the person making the request is the best way to facilitate the request, Mr. Gerwin said.

Having a solid base of information available on the Internet, which is not a requirement of the law, can meet a person’s needs without ever visiting the office.

“You are not obliged to provide Internet access, but when your records are available online it is invaluable,” Mr. Gerwin said. “It not only provides more transparency, but better customer service for the requester and less work for the public office dealing with the requests.”

He noted that all offices must either have a record retention schedule in place regarding the destruction of records, which must be approved by the Ohio Historical Society, or else keep the records forever.

Mr. Gerwin closed the meeting by touching on open meeting laws.

He said meetings must be prearranged, consist of a majority of a body’s members and be for the purpose of deliberating or discussing public business. He then addressed the limited reasons why public bodies can enter into executive, or closed door, sessions and noted that no decision making or straw polls can be conducted in those sessions.

All participants in the event were given copies of the most recent edition of the Ohio Sunshine Laws manual and were encouraged to take additional copies to fellow office members. An online copy of the manual is available at: www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/yellowbook.

Additional information is available on the Ohio Auditor’s Open Government Unit Web site at ohioauditor.gov/open.html.