Shedding light on public records compliance

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in The New Political’s Summer Magazine: “Coming Home.”

For many, the word “sunshine” probably doesn’t bring thoughts of paperwork, data and public records requests to mind. 

However, Sunshine Laws, also known as Ohio Public Records and Open Meeting Laws, allow the public access to proceedings of government agencies in Ohio – shedding light on government activity. Sunshine Laws make it easier for the public to exercise the rights afforded to them through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). 

Taken into effect in 1967, FOIA gives the public the right to request records from public agencies. While there are some exceptions to FOIA, most records from public entities, ranging from school boards and city governments to public universities and Congress, can be at least partially obtained through a request. 

In November 2019, Ohio Auditor of State Keith Faber founded the StaRS public records system to encourage greater records request compliance among public agencies in the state. StaRS monitors and rates Sunshine Law compliance in government entities across Ohio.

The initial StaRS report, released in March 2021, included 2,812 reviews of public records compliance across the state, according to a press release from Faber’s office.

Ohio University received the Highest Achievement in the Open and Transparent Government Award from the StaRS rating program. 

Carly Leatherwood, the executive director of communications at Ohio U, attributes the university’s high StaRS rating to having a designated member of the university’s legal staff handle public records requests. 

“We have a staff person who is dedicated to that. It’s something we take very seriously,” Leatherwood said.

For some smaller government entities, the COVID-19 pandemic has made filling public records requests more challenging. Jack Pepper, administrator of the Athens City-County Health Department (ACCHD), said the pandemic has made filling public records requests in a timely manner more difficult. 

“We are a very small health department, and we’re starting to wind down in terms of some of our efforts that are focused on the COVID pandemic, but during the throes of the pandemic it was every staff person that I had was working all day, every day on COVID related items, so it made it very difficult, particularly larger requests, to get those filled in a timely manner,” Pepper said. 

Pepper added that the health department has not seen an increase in the number of records requests being made during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“We typically only field probably six to eight requests a year,” Pepper said. 

At Ohio U, however, requests increased. According to data from Ohio U’s legal team obtained by Leatherwood, the university processed 334 public records requests in 2020, an increase from 249 requests in 2019.

“While the pandemic did not slow down our process in any way, I think it’s safe to say that it did have an impact on an increased number of requests for public information here,” Leatherwood said in a statement accompanying the data.