Violations up in 2016, auditor says
It's not always easy to find out what's going on in Clinton Township.
Officials in the township centered along Cleveland Avenue in northeastern Franklin County were cited four times — tied for the most in the state — for Sunshine Law violations last year.
The number comes from the annual Sunshine Week report released Sunday by Auditor Dave Yost, whose office issued 414 citations to Ohio governmental entities for transparency violations during 2016.
Clinton Township’s state audit, covering 2013 through 2015 and released late last year, found that minutes for six trustees meetings in 2013 were unavailable, and minutes were not approved for nine meetings from 2013
to 2015. The missing minutes include a session in which the trustees approved their spending plan. The trustees also met in private four times without documenting a permissible reason for the secrecy as required by law. The township also was cited for officials failing to receive required public-records training.
Trustee John Coneglio said that the problems with keeping proper minutes have
been corrected (he attributed them to a former employee “who stopped doing his job”) and that training requirements will be met.
Statewide, most of the audit citations to 357 public entities centered on failing to obtain records training and failing to adopt publicrecords policies or make those policies available. Townships and villages, the smaller units of local government, were responsible for nearly 55 percent of the violations. Although the number of citations rose 16 percent in 2016, the number of guilty entities changed little.
“Public records and transparency are not a matter of instinct. It requires training, and that’s why it’s in the law,” Yost said in a statement. “When you take the public paycheck, you take the obligation to get trained. These documents belong to the people.”
Several other Franklin County governmental entities were among those cited for violations last year: Hamilton Township, Sharon Township, Bexley schools, Canal Winchester Joint Recreational District, Minerva Park and Franklin County Agricultural Society.
Three charter schools — Berwyn East Academy, Talented Tenth Leadership Academy for Boys and Talented Tenth Leadership Academy for Girls — were cited.
The adjutant general’s office, Ohio Elections Commission and Broadcast Educational Media Commission were the units of state government cited for violations.
Sunshine Week, a national observance to stress and strengthen the public’s right to know, began Sunday.