Auditor wrongly cites library

Staff report

WARREN

The state auditor’s office has confirmed it wrongly cited the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library for failing to fulfill public records training requirements.

April R. Strickland, an audit manager in the state auditor’s Youngstown office, told library officials of the error in a March 14 email that said her office discovered the mistake because of a March 12 Vindicator article that mentioned the citation.

“That portion of the law does not pertain to libraries’ appointed board members,” Strickland said in an email to Julia Sprouse, library business manager.

Library board members and their designees aren’t required to obtain the training because they aren’t elected officials, Strickland explained.

Library board members are appointed by the Trumbull County commissioners and common pleas court judges, said Jan Vaughn, library assistant director.

The library citation was contained in a list of 414 public records-related citations the state auditor’s office issued to 357 public entities during 2016.

State Auditor Dave Yost issued the list in connection with last week’s Sunshine Week observance.

Yost’s office had cited the library in a Nov. 7, 2016, management letter covering 2014 and 2015, shortly after Vaughn and Jim Wilkins, library director, voluntarily attended public records training given by a representative of Yost’s office Oct. 14, 2016, in Niles.