No sharing of trade secrets

COLUMBUS

I once called the Ohio Department of Development, looking for a copy of a meeting agenda.

I did this on the day this meeting was taking place. More specifically, I called after this particular meeting had already started, because someone neglected to send it out in advance.

The agency’s response: We’ll have to run the request by legal counsel.

You could chalk that up to ignorance or someone new to dealing with media calls — it’s absurd to have to ask an attorney whether it’s proper to release an agenda for a public meeting that is already in progress.

But it’s a pretty good example of how difficult it sometimes can be for reporters to get information on public meetings or copies of public records from state agencies, especially those working with private companies.

I got the runaround for trying to get a meeting agenda, so you can imagine what it’s like to obtain copies of records related to tax breaks and low-interest loans and other incentives.

It’s like pulling teeth out of a chicken.

That’s because much of the information is exempt from public perusal.

Open meetings law

There are specific provisions in the state’s open meetings law that allow the boards that approve financial incentives for businesses to go into closed session to talk about marketing plans, business strategies, trade secrets, financial projections and personal financial statements, including tax records.

And records that are not exempt from sunshine laws are kept under tight grip until business expansion plans are finalized.

For example, try getting details of projects being considered by the Ohio Tax Credit Authority or the Development Financing Advisory Council before members meet in public to discuss them. Or try getting those same details on the day those public meetings take place, after the boards have acted.

I often can’t get the bare bones facts on specific project until hours later, and sometimes not until the next day.

Again, that’s for the bare bones version, not business plans or detailed financial documents that could be used to gain a competitive advantage.

So it’s silly for lawmakers to cite a need for more confidentiality in the process as a reason to privatize the Ohio Department of Development, via Gov. John Kasich’s JobsOhio initiative.

But that’s what some Republicans were doing last week in the Ohio House.

“There is a lot of confidential business planning, a lot of financials, a lot of trade secrets and a lot of information that this department has to consider,” Rep. Robert Mecklenborg, a Republican from the Cincinnati area, told members of the House’s finance committee. “... If these documents are thrown out there into the public ... there would be absolutely no way that this department could conduct the business and turn around Ohio. And if you really mean that you’re serious that things haven’t been working, we have to try something different in that regard.”

Secrecy abounds

That would be a legitimate point if the Ohio Department of Development actually turned over such documents to the public and to the media upon request.

In my experience, that’s not the case.

Growing businesses and the government officials who sign off on incentives are savvy enough to know how to avoid the public spotlight or stonewall media types seeking information.

They’ve been doing it effectively for years.

To suggest otherwise is as absurd as having to ask a government lawyer whether it’s OK to release the agenda for a public meeting already in progress.

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