(June 2022) Request for City of Cheviot, OH Government: Council Member emails 03/01/22 – 06/01/22 (or present day)

Activity:

• June 15, 2022 1:36 pm

  1 year ago

  from: Kimberlee Erdman Rohr <[email protected]>
  to: Kimberlee Erdman Rohr <[email protected]>,
  Sunshine Request <[email protected]>
  cc: [email protected],
  [email protected]
  date: Jun 15, 2022, 1:36 PM
  subject: Re: Re: Records Request: (June 2022) Request for City of Cheviot, OH Government: Council Member emails 03/01/22 – 06/01/22 (or present day)

   

  Thank you for the update. You have a good day as well!

   

  Kimberlee Erdman Rohr, Esq.
  Law Director
  City of Cheviot
  513-661-2700
  [email protected]

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  Status: Completed
• June 15, 2022 12:32 pm

  1 year ago

  from: Sunshine Request <[email protected]>
  to: Kimberlee Erdman Rohr <[email protected]>
  cc: [email protected],
  [email protected]
  date: Jun 15, 2022, 12:32 PM
  subject: Re: Records Request: (June 2022) Request for City of Cheviot, OH Government: Council Member emails 03/01/22 – 06/01/22 (or present day)

   

  Good afternoon Kimberlee,

   

  Thank you so much for the detailed explanation. I super appreciate your clarification and will note this information on our website so any future requestors have this guidance for how to narrow a request. Future requesters are encouraged to submit a new narrowed request, either directly to your offices or through our website.

   

  I will go ahead and mark this request as completed.

   

  Thank you again for your help!
  Have a good day.

  ---

  Status: Completed
• June 15, 2022 10:14 am

  1 year ago

  from: Kimberlee Erdman Rohr <[email protected]>
  to: Sunshine Request <[email protected]>
  cc: [email protected],
  [email protected]
  date: Jun 15, 2022, 10:14 AM
  subject: Re: Records Request: (June 2022) Request for City of Cheviot, OH Government: Council Member emails 03/01/22 – 06/01/22 (or present day)

   

  Good morning,

   

  The supporting case law is clear that ORC 149.43 does not contemplate that a requester is entitled to a complete duplication of the public office’s voluminous files. Your request is for “all emails sent to and sent from Councilman B. Smyth and President K. Smyth’s email addresses, during the specific time period of 03/01/22 through 06/01/22 (or as of the date the query is performed). This request is not subject or keyword specific. I’d like to receive “all emails” during the time period indicated.” This request seeks a complete duplication of the email files for a more than 3 month period. This is overly broad. Courts have found that limiting the request to even a one-month period for every ingoing and outgoing email is overly broad.

   

  Moreover, ORC 149.43 involves the release of “public records.” Email is a medium on which a public record is stored, not the record itself. Not all emails are automatically public records – it is the content therein that is the public record. The law requires requests to be narrowly tailored, rather than a blanket request for all documents/records of a certain type.

   

  The City would like to respond to your request if you can revise the request to make the request more specific and not a complete duplication of the email files for the 3 month period. The City invites you to revise the request to limit the request for records by subject matter, specific topic, and/or shorter time period. You can also revise the request to limit the records to emails to/from certain correspondents (i.e., emails between Councilman Smyth and President of Council Smyth, or emails from an identified correspondent to Councilman Smyth, etc.). The City’s email system allows search by sender, recipient, date, subject, and specific words.

   

  Thank you,
  Kimberlee Erdman Rohr, Esq.
  Law Director
  City of Cheviot
  513-661-2700
  [email protected]

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  Status: Clarification Provided
• June 9, 2022 12:03 pm

  1 year ago

  from: Sunshine Request <[email protected]>
  to: [email protected]
  cc: [email protected],
  [email protected]
  date: Jun 9, 2022, 12:03 PM
  subject: Re: Fwd: Records Request: (June 2022) Request for City of Cheviot, OH Government: Council Member emails 03/01/22 – 06/01/22 (or present day)

   

  Hi Kimberlee,

   

  Thank you for your reply.

   

  I reviewed the 2022 Ohio Sunshine Laws at the following URL, “Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost Ohio Sunshine Laws 2022: An Open Government Resource Manual”, which say in part that:

   

  “… A requester must identify the records he or she is seeking “with reasonable clarity,”104 so that the public office can identify responsive records based on the manner in which it ordinarily maintains and accesses the public records it keeps.105”

   

  “… A public office can properly deny a request if the office no longer keeps the records pursuant to their records retention schedules, if the request is for documents that are not records of the office, or if the requester does not revise an ambiguous or overly broad request.”

   

  I’m unsure what you mean in saying the request “seeks a complete duplication of the email files for the named public officials”. I don’t know what email system you use (I assume Microsoft 365 etc.) or how you query the records, but my assumption is that emails can be easily searched and downloaded – So I don’t know what “duplication” you are referring to in the context of my request. Can you please clarify?

   

  I’m also unsure what is unclear, “ambiguous” / “overly broad”, about my request – I’ve asked for all emails sent to and from two specific addresses, during a (relatively short) specific time period:

   

  “… all emails sent to and sent from Councilman B. Smyth and President K. Smyth’s email addresses, during the specific time period of 03/01/22 through 06/01/22 (or as of the date the query is performed).This request is not subject or keyword specific.”

   

  I’d like to ask that you please provide the following clarification as to how the request should be “narrowed”, or explanation as to why it cannot be fulfilled as written:

   

  “… R.C. 149.43(B)(2) permits a public office to deny any part of a public records request that is ambiguous or overly broad as defined above. However, the statute then requires the public office to give the requester the opportunity to revise the denied request, by informing the requester how the office ordinarily maintains and accesses its records.117 Thus, the Public Records Act expressly promotes cooperation to clarify and narrow requests that are ambiguous or overly broad, in order to craft a successful, revised request. The public office can inform the requester how the office ordinarily maintains and accesses records through a verbal or written explanation.”

   

  Thank you for your help!

  ~ Lauren (andThe Sunshine Request Team)

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  Status: Clarification Requested
• June 8, 2022 2:07 pm

  1 year ago

  from: Kimberlee Erdman Rohr <[email protected]>
  to: Sunshine Request <[email protected]>
  cc: [email protected],
  [email protected]
  date: Jun 8, 2022, 2:07 PM
  subject: Re: Fwd: Records Request: (June 2022) Request for City of Cheviot, OH Government: Council Member emails 03/01/22 – 06/01/22 (or present day)

   

  To Whom It May Concern:

   

  The City of Cheviot is in receipt of your public records request dated June 7, 2022. Your request is overly broad, as it seeks a complete duplication of the email files for the named public officials. The City invites you to revise your request and limit the scope to a specific topic, subject matter, or date, so that the City may respond accordingly.

   

  Thank you,

  Kimberlee Erdman Rohr, Esq.
  Law Director
  City of Cheviot
  513-661-2700
  [email protected]

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  Status: Response Received from Government
• June 7, 2022 2:55 pm

  1 year ago

  from: Sunshine Request <[email protected]>
  to: [email protected]
  cc: [email protected]
  date: Jun 7, 2022, 2:55 PM
  subject: Records Request: (June 2022) Request for City of Cheviot, OH Government: Council Member emails 03/01/22 – 06/01/22 (or present day)

   

  Good afternoon Cheviot, OH (Records Officer),

   

  I’d like to make a public records request for information that may be available in your office.

   

  If you’re not the appropriate party to contact about the request, please provide the correct name and email address of whom I should send it to.

   

  Please confirm receipt to let me know the request will begin processing, and if possible, please provide a rough estimate of when the request may be completed. I will plan on following up again around the end of the month if I have not heard back before then.

   

  Here are the details of the request:

   

  Subject: (June 2022) Request for City of Cheviot, OH Government: Council Member emails 03/01/22 – 06/01/22 (or present day)

   

  Message: “Hello City of Cheviot, OH Government (Records Officer),

   

  I’d like to make a public records request for the following information per Ohio Sunshine Laws.

   

  Please provide all emails sent to and sent from Councilman B. Smyth and President K. Smyth’s email addresses, during the specific time period of 03/01/22 through 06/01/22 (or as of the date the query is performed).

   

  This request is not subject or keyword specific. I’d like to receive “all emails” during the time period indicated.
  ———–

   

  I do not believe I am required to provide a name or address to associate with a public records request, but in order to move things along I’d like to clarify that this request is being made by:

   

  Sunshine Request
  PO Box 17391
  Asheville, NC 28816

   

  The request has been sent solely from the email address [email protected] . If anyone other than that email address contacts you to pursue a similar request, it did not come from me. Please do not commingle or treat that as an alteration or cancellation of my request – I intend to continue to pursue my request.

   

  Please note that I cannot commit to sign any forms or pay any potential fees / associated costs related to any request. If it is not possible to process the request without incurring fees, then please let me know the itemized potential cost.

   

  ** If you are unable to fulfill any or all parts of this request, please specifically cite where a reason for denial is justified under any public records laws, statutes, etc. **

   

  Thank you for your assistance!”

   

  Thank you!

   

  ** Sunshine Request (www.sunshinerequest.com) makes no claim as to the veracity of any statements or information contained in any of the requests, or public records, we receive.

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  Status: Sent to Government
• June 3, 2022 6:18 pm

  1 year ago

  Submitted to Sunshine Request

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  Status: Pending