State agency should let sunshine in

COLUMBUS

Want to know the home addresses of individuals behind a proposed constitutional amendment, whose petition language was recently OK’d by the state Ballot Board?

You can get that information on public documents readily available from the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office.

Want to know the names and home addresses of individuals who attended a recent public hearing concerning wastewater treatment at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park?

You can get that information on public documents readily available from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

How about the names and addresses of individuals who have received grants to complete art projects and workshops across the state?

You can get that information on public documents readily available from the Ohio Arts Council.

Want to know the names and addresses of the people who are telling the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board how to craft enforceable animal care rules that will affect farmers statewide?

Good luck.

Because though the Ohio Department of Agriculture is releasing the names, officials are redacting most of the addresses from the sign-in sheets that were used at regional listening sessions, citing a recent Franklin County judge’s ruling that the home addresses of licensed school teachers are not public records.

That refusal to release what has long been considered a public document in its entirety does not bode well for public confidence in the animal care rules that will be implemented statewide.

Public meetings

The new Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board has been playing host to a series of public meetings, aimed at gathering citizen input on rules it intends to implement and enforce.

It’s standard stuff: People come in, write their names and addresses on sign-in sheets, then stand up and voice their opinion on care standards.

State Agriculture Director Robert Boggs even told attendees at a recent session in Columbus to be aware of the public nature of the meeting: “Anyone who wants to speak tonight, you will be taped. That’s the right of the press in America, to be able to come into public meetings and do this. I just want you to be aware that whatever you say might someday appear on a television screen or what have you.”

But when I asked for copies of the sign-in sheets following the meeting in Columbus, just to see who was in attendance and where they live. I received the sheets, with black lines through most of the addresses.

“...The addresses do not document the organization, function, policies, decisions, procedures, operations or other activities of the Ohio Department of Agriculture or the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board,” David D. Gorman, senior staff counsel, wrote in a letter explaining the decision.

Here’s the problem with that reasoning: Agriculture officials have made it clear that they intend to use public comments as they develop standards that will be enforced statewide.

If these public listening sessions really are providing direction to the voter-approved board, then the public has the right to know who these people are, where they are from and what stake they have in the outcome.

Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. E-mail him at mkovac@dixcom.com or or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.