Dann seeks records from Taft over scandal

The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in the case today.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- State Sen. Marc Dann says Gov. Bob Taft should give up all the records the Liberty Democrat is seeking related to a state investments controversy.
Dann also says in a lawsuit against Taft that the Republican governor should allow himself and key current and former aides to be deposed in connection with the case.
But Taft has sought protection in the Ohio Supreme Court from the case, claiming executive privilege.
Those views will collide today as the high court holds oral arguments.
The suit by Dann, who has emerged as a leading critic of investment losses at the state Bureau of Workers' Compensation, seeks all weekly memos dating back to 1998 from the governor's office involving the BWC, the state's insurance fund for injured workers.
The BWC has lost about $300 million in various investments over the past few years. Dann has said he wants to know if or when Taft was ever informed of the BWC investment losses.
Some papers turned over
Taft's office has turned over several hundred pages of governor's office memoranda to Dann and his lawyers. Dann's lawyers, however, say that some were redacted and that as many as 267 memos may not have been provided.
Dann and his lawyers also want to depose Taft and other current and former state officials, but Taft's lawyers have resisted.
In papers filed with the high court, Dann's lawyers say the reports aren't immune from the state's open-records laws.
"The routine weekly reports to the governor from the executive officers of Ohio's departments and commissions are not exempted from the Public Records Act by 'presidential communications privilege' applicable to the governor," lawyers for Dann say.
"The governor's attempt to create a new 'executive-communications privilege,' equal to the 'presidential communications privilege,' represents a threat to open government as well as an unlawful usurpation of the powers of the Legislature and this court," Dann's lawyers say.
Dann's lawyers also maintain that current and former government officials need to be deposed in the case, saying the discovery process is controlled by the court system's civil rules.
Governor's case
The governor's lawyers see things differently.
The case "is an issue of serious constitutional significance for this governor and all future governors," Taft's lawyers say in court papers.
"This case is before the court because Governor Taft exercised his express constitutional right, as well as the executive privilege afforded chief executive communications and did not immediately turn over to [Dann] certain Weekly Reports that he received at his request from one of his cabinet directors and certain of his internal policy advisors," Taft's lawyers say.
"In doing so, Governor Taft sought to protect his right, and the right of those who will follow him in office, to have private communications with subordinate executive officers, a right which is essential for effective governance," the governor's lawyers wrote.
The governor's lawyers also say in court papers that parties to a lawsuit can seek protection from forms of court discovery such as depositions and that it has happened in many court cases.