Filings seek disclosure of public records

By Peter Milliken

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

milliken@vindy.com

COLUMBUS

A lawyer for Cafaro Co. affiliates has filed two mandamus actions with the Ohio Supreme Court, asking that court to compel Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains and Gina Bricker, an assistant county prosecutor, to fulfill the lawyer’s request for disclosure of public records concerning Oakhill Renaissance Place.

The lawyer, John F. McCaffrey of Cleveland, is one of the lawyers defending the Ohio Valley Mall Co. and the Marion Plaza Inc. in a criminal case, in which prosecutors allege those companies and six other defendants conspired to prevent or delay the move of the county’s Department of Job and Family Services from Cafaro. Co.-owned rented quarters to the county-owned Oakhill Renaissance Place.

In response to the lawyer’s public-records request, Gains said he had no records of communications between his staff and grand-jury Judge James C. Evans concerning the Oakhill grand jury or between Gains’ staff and the Oakhill grand jurors.

McCaffrey also protested Gains’ withholding of calendars of Gains, Bricker and Linette Stratford, another assistant county prosecutor, from Nov. 1, 2008, to the present, and Gains’ refusal to provide records of grand-jury-related complaints generated by, or filed against, his office or staff.

Gains’ refusal to produce those calendars and complaints is invalid under the Ohio Public Records Act, McCaffrey said.

Gains requested the appointment of independent special prosecutors in the Oakhill criminal case, but Stratford, his civil division chief, was frequently seen with those special prosecutors at Oakhill grand-jury sessions earlier this year.

In his other mandamus action, McCaffrey complained Bricker didn’t provide the following records in response to his public-records request:

Threatened or pending claims by county employees working at Oakhill since the county acquired Oakhill in 2006.

Relocation costs for county agencies that moved to Oakhill, how the vacated space is now being used, and the income and operating costs for the vacated space before and after the relocation.

The timing and costs of any landscaping work performed at Oakhill since the county bought it.

“We gave them over 8,000 pages,” Gains said. “We gave them everything that we believe that we have that is subject to the public-records law,” Gains added.

“If they have documents that they claim exist that we did not provide, they should identify those documents, and we’ll look for them,” Gains said. “We have nothing to hide.”

McCaffrey declined to answer a reporter’s questions, saying all his public comments concerning the Oakhill matter would be made in filings of court documents and in open court.

Joe Bell, the Cafaro Co.’s director of corporate communications, also declined to comment because the Oakhill matter is pending in court.