Akron, Ohio Law offices of Warner Mendenhall, Attorney - Akron, Ohio Law offices of Warner Mendenhall, Attorney

To obtain overtime records for two City of Akron secretaries, Warner Mendenhall sued under Ohio’s Public Records Statute which provides a strong tool for citizen oversight.The statute provides the successful citizen with a chance to recover attorney’s fees spent in pursuit of public records and a $1000.00 penalty for each record destroyed improperly. These incentives led to a $1.7 million dollar verdict at trial and a $983,000.00 settlement in Kish v. City of Akron in early 2007. The Ohio Supreme Court heard this case. The decision is at:http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/rod/docs/pdf/0/2006/2006-ohio-1244.pdf.

The language in that decision is beautiful. For example:

Public records are one portal through which the people observe their government, ensuring its accountability, integrity, and equity while minimizing sovereign mischief and malfeasance. Public records afford an array of other utilitarian purposes necessary to a sophisticated democracy: they illuminate and foster understanding of the rationale underlying state decisions, promote cherished rights such as freedom of speech and press, foster openness and encourage the free flow of information where it is not prohibited by law. Our founders rejected the English commonlaw and property theories that curtailed citizens' access to governmental information. Instead, our legislators, executives, and judges mandated and monitored the careful creation and preservation of public records, and codified the people's right to access those records. Such statutes, including those constituting R.C. Chapter 149, reinforce the understanding that open access to government papers is an integral entitlement of the people, to be preserved with vigilance and vigor. (citations omitted).