WEATHERSFIELD Accident reports turn up missing

The chief does not believe the records have left the township records or archives areas.
By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MINERAL RIDGE -- Weathersfield Township Police Chief Joseph Consiglio said a search for more than a year's worth of accident records is continuing internally.
The chief had discovered the original 2004 accident reports were not sent to the state, and are missing.
Copies of the records still exist, but the original records, which are supposed to be sent every 10 days to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, haven't been found. OBMV uses these documents to create statistics on accidents.
Consiglio said, however, that he believes the records are in a township building -- either the trustees' administrative offices where the police department is located and current records are kept, or in the archives, which are stored in another township building.
He declined to say what that other building is because the search is ongoing.
The chief added that he does not believe the records have left the township records or archives areas.
No problems yet
There have been no complaints or questions from individuals in the reports reporting possible identity theft, he noted.
Trustee chairman John Vogel said Social Security numbers were removed from the reports but added that any individual could come to the township and request any one or a number of the accident reports. "They are public records," he said.
He noted ages, birthdates, what people look like and any infirmities they may have are listed on the accident forms.
Vogel said original accident reports are multipart forms, and added that one page of that multipart form from each of the records didn't get to where it was supposed to go -- to the state. He noted the township has the other parts of the originals.
Consiglio said the fact that the 2004 records are missing came to light when he was looking into another matter in the records room. This was in late December or the beginning of January.
"I found items in a box of records that should not have been in the box, and asked Capt. Mike Naples to look further," he said. "Now we're going over our archives to see if they were misfiled."
Punishment
Consiglio said disciplinary action has been taken against the police secretary, who also is secretary for the township.
Trustees decided in executive session that Debbie Lindenmuth should be given a three-day suspension. That took place this spring, Consiglio said.
Vogel said he is unhappy that an employee got singled out in the situation, adding that not only have the checks and balances changed, but the township took lessons learned from this mistake and made sure all paper filing was reviewed. "We really are running much better now," he added.
"The employee is a footnote to what the problem is," he said, adding that both management and the trustees are also components. He said that's why he fought for leniency in the final three-day suspension.
Consiglio said someone had a responsibility to take care of the records but didn't do it.
He added that Naples will be looking through boxes and boxes of archives to see if the records were put in a box with other records.