By Randy Ludlow, The Columbus DIspatch
The time has come to talk of many things if you value transparency in government.
In observance of national Sunshine Week, Dispatch Editor Alan Miller joined me for a Buckeye Forum podcast discussing the importance of public records and open meetings to an informed citizenry.
We offer some tips for gaining access to public records and discuss how you can best fashion your request to increase your chances of landing the information you seek.
Here’s a blog link to more Sunshine-related resources we provided earlier this week, including the so-called “Yellow Book,” the definitive guide to public access laws in Ohio.
In our podcast, we promised to provide a fill-in-the-blanks form letter you can use to request public records from state agencies, city and county governments, school boards and others. You can email rludlow@dispatch.com to request a Word version as an attachment or cut-and-paste text.
Remember, they are your records. Government merely is the custodian of the public’s records. Go get ’em.