Ohio Supreme Court Adopts New Public Records Rules

Rules adopted by the Ohio Supreme Court on Monday could restrict the public's access to court records, a leading open-government advocate says.

Cleveland lawyer David Marburger, of the Ohio Coalition for Open Government, said the rules shift the burden to the public to prove why it needs access to court records if someone involved in a case wants them sealed.

College Students Learn About Procuring Public Records

The goal of the experiment was to determine if local public records are truly accessible to ordinary citizens.

Thirty-eight UW-River Falls students who took part in an open records aud3it learned the answer is nearly always yes. But that doesn’t mean all area officials give up the information graciously.

SC County Balks on FOIA Requests

Williamsburg County Supervisor Stanley Pasley has not responded within the prescribed fifteen-day deadline to Freedom of Information requests.

The Weekly Observer has filed requests concerning landfill finances with County Treasurer Pearl Brown, who has provided a portion of the requests, but stated to the Observer that the part of the request had been turned over to Pasley, because only he could provide the information. The records sought are all specifically identified in state law as public records.

State Freedom of information law states that financial records are public records and must be made available to the press and public, except for some specific exemptions. The law also requires response to Freedom of Information law within fifteen working days, and states that any records that are claimed exempt must be so identified within the time limit, or the request must be granted.

Editing Iowa Public Records Could Cost $1.8 Million

Redacting Social Security numbers and other personal information on the Web could cost as much as $1.8 million under estimates given Tuesday to lawmakers.

IowaLandRecords.org, a Web site used by Iowa county auditors, faced public scrutiny in September when privacy watchdogs pointed out that thousands of Social Security numbers — including those of Gov. Chet Culver and Secretary of State Michael Mauro — were available.

Many Florida Pulbic Agencies Flunk Simple Open Records Test

TaMaryn Waters walked into the Jefferson County School District offices with a simple request: She wanted a copy of the most recent e-mail the superintendent sent school board members about the district budget.

But it wasn't so simple. What she found was a staff that was confused and suspicious and a superintendent who didn't understand public record laws. Waters never told them who she was, but a week later the secretary called her and admitted the staff tracked her down by running her license plate number.

Conflict Arises Over State's Fees for Public Records

Gov. Ed Rendell issued a directive that allows state agencies to charge a reasonable fee for searching and retrieving documents after the revised open records law fully takes effect on Jan. 1.

The directive also allows agencies to charge for redacting non-public information from copies of requested government documents.