State ex rel. Long v. Cardington Village Council, 00-857.

• Decision Date: 13 June 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-857.,00-857.
• Citation: 748 NE 2d 58,92 Ohio St.3d 54
• Parties: THE STATE EX REL. LONG v. COUNCIL OF THE VILLAGE OF CARDINGTON ET AL.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

92 Ohio St.3d 54

748 NE 2d 58

THE STATE EX REL. LONG v. COUNCIL OF THE VILLAGE OF CARDINGTON ET AL.

No. 00-857.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

Submitted March 13, 2001.

Decided June 13, 2001.

Alden, Taylor & Durkin, LLC, Randolph W. Alden and James R. Taylor, for relator.

Manos, Martin, Pergram & Deitz Co., L.P.A., Dennis L. Pergram and James M. Deitz, for respondents.

Per Curiam.

Respondent Council of the Village of Cardington, Ohio, and its members, respondents Robert Doolin, Cecil Maxwell, Laurie Plotner, David Sheets, Joel Sherman, and Vicki Wise, conduct public business of the village through prearranged discussions by a majority of the village council members. The village council characterizes these prearranged discussions as regular sessions, special sessions, work sessions, joint sessions, personnel committee meetings, and finance committee meetings. Respondent Cardington Mayor William Christian attends and presides over village council meetings, and respondent Cardington Clerk/Treasurer Belva Bowers prepares minutes for the meetings.

On May 9, 2000, after becoming dissatisfied with respondents' responses to her request for certain public records and to her claims that respondents had violated Ohio's Sunshine Law, R.C. 121.22, relator, Mary Long, a village resident and former village council member, filed a complaint for a writ of mandamus in this court.

In her complaint, Long claimed that village council minutes for meetings held by respondents were inadequate and incorrect. More specifically, Long objected to the council minutes of the January 3, 2000 work session, the January 3, 2000 joint session, the January 13, 2000 work session, the January 17, 2000 regular session, the January 17, 2000 finance committee meeting, the January 24, 2000 personnel committee meeting, the January 25, 2000 personnel committee meeting, the January 26, 2000 special session, the February 22, 2000 finance committee meeting, the March 20, 2000 regular session, and the March 20, 2000 finance committee meeting.

For example, the minutes of the January 3 council meetings erroneously included Long's name in the roll call, but she was not a member of the village council at that time. In addition, the January 3 council work session included the following generalized statements:

"The Mayor discussed the plans for this meeting. The Mayor's belief in how committee chairs will operate. * * * There was a discussion regarding the wet retention area at Bantry Farms. Future Developers must not have the same engineer as the village."

Long further claimed that minutes for the January 13 work session, the January 17 regular session, the January 26 special session, and the March 20 regular session failed to state with the requisite specificity the purpose or purposes of convening executive sessions (i.e., meetings closed to the public) during the council's sessions. Instead, the minutes for these meetings referred to executive sessions for the purposes of "personnel and finances," "personnel," and "personnel matters."

In addition, Long asserted that minutes of the January 17 finance committee meeting, the January 24 personnel committee meeting, the January 25 personnel committee meeting, the February 22 finance committee meeting, and the March 20 finance committee meeting did not record motions or votes.

Long requested a writ of mandamus to compel respondents to prepare, file, and maintain full and accurate meeting minutes for all meetings and executive sessions, including those meetings specified in her complaint, and to compel respondents to conduct all meetings in public except for those meetings that properly constitute executive sessions. Long also requested an award of costs and attorney fees under R.C. 121.22(I) and 149.43(C).

Respondents Bowers, Christian, Doolin, and Maxwell filed an answer and a motion for judgment on the pleadings. In the motion, they claimed that this court lacks original jurisdiction over an action for a mandatory injunction in common pleas court under R.C. 121.22(1) and that Long has, in fact, brought such an action in the Morrow County Court of Common Pleas. Respondents Cardington Village Council, Plotner, Sheets, Sherman, and Wise failed to file a timely response to Long's complaint, and Long moved for a default judgment against them.

After mediation failed to resolve the parties' dispute, this case was returned to the regular docket. We denied the motions for judgment on the pleadings and for default judgment and granted an alternative writ. 90 Ohio St.3d 1415, 735 N.E.2d 455.

The parties then filed evidence and briefs. Respondents' evidence included an affidavit of respondent Plotner in which she stated that council meetings, with the exception of executive sessions, are audiotaped, that the tapes are available to the public, and that the minutes are prepared from the tapes and notes of the meetings. Respondents subsequently filed audiotapes and transcripts of audiotapes of the following council meetings: the January 3 joint session, the January 17 regular session, the January 26 special session, and the March 20 regular session.

This cause is now before the court for a consideration of the merits.

Long requests a writ of mandamus to compel respondents to prepare, file, and maintain full and accurate minutes for all meetings and to conduct all meetings in public except for properly called executive sessions.

Ohio's Sunshine Law, R.C. 121.22, requires the preparation, filing, and maintenance of a public body's minutes. White v. Clinton Cty. Bd. of Commrs. (1996), 76 Ohio St.3d 416, 423, 667 N.E.2d 1223, 1229; R.C. 121.22(C). Once these minutes are prepared, Ohio's Public Records Act, R.C. 149.43, requires the public body to permit public access to the minutes upon request. State ex rel. Fairfield Leader v. Ricketts (1990), 56 Ohio St.3d 97, 101, 564 N.E.2d 486, 491; see, also, R.C. 121.22(C). Finally, R.C. 733.27(A) provides that the village clerk "shall attend all meetings of the legislative authority of the village, and keep a record of its proceedings." (Emphasis added.)

Construing R.C. 121.22, 149.43, and 733.27 in pari materia, respondents, the Cardington Village Council, its members, the village clerk, as well as the mayor, who presides over the village council meetings, have a duty to prepare, file, and maintain full and accurate minutes for council meetings, and to make them available for public inspection. See State ex rel. Gains v. Rossi (1999), 86 Ohio St.3d 620, 622, 716 N.E.2d 204, 207 ("Under the applicable rule of statutory construction, all statutes relating to the same general subject matter must be read in pari materia"); cf. White, 76 Ohio St.3d 416,667 N.E.2d 1223, at paragraph one of the syllabus ("R.C. 121.22, 149.43, and 305.10, when read together, impose a duty on all boards of county commissioners to maintain a full and accurate record of their proceedings").

Respondents contend that they fully complied with these duties to prepare and make available minutes by audiotaping council meetings and making the audiotapes of the meetings available to the public. In White, 76 Ohio St.3d at 424, 667 N.E.2d at 1229, we observed that audio recordings could be a "legitimate means of satisfying the requirements of R.C. 121.22 * * *." Nevertheless, for the following reasons, respondents' contention that their audiotapes complied with R.C. 121.22, 149.43, and 733.27 is meritless.

First, respondents never treated these audiotapes as the official minutes of their meetings. Instead, the typewritten minutes are prepared from the tapes as well as from notes taken during the meetings. At the beginning of regular council meetings, the council reviews and approves the written minutes, not the tapes, of prior meetings.

Second, respondents did not tape all of their meetings. For example, respondents have not introduced tapes of any of the village council's finance or personnel committee meetings, or for that matter, any council meetings other than the four filed in this proceeding.

Third, at the April 17, 2000 village council meeting, the council unanimously voted to erase tapes of council meetings after the written minutes had been approved. If the tapes were truly the minutes required by R.C. 121.22, 149.43, and 733.27, they would be maintained, not quickly destroyed. See R.C. 121.22(C) ("The minutes of a regular or special meeting of any public body shall be promptly prepared, filed, and maintained and shall be open to public inspection").

Finally, even if the few tapes and accompanying transcripts provided by respondents could be considered minutes, they contain too many inaudible portions to satisfy the requirement of a full and accurate record. For example, the tape of the January 3 joint session contains approximately thirteen instances in which the tape cannot be understood, and the tape of the January 17 regular session contains approximately twenty-six inaudible portions. Notably, absent a transcript of each audiotape, a member of the public might not know the identities of the speakers.

Therefore, in determining whether respondents complied with their statutory duties, we consider the written minutes provided to Long rather than the audiotapes.

In analyzing these minutes, it is apparent that they do not provide a full and accurate record of council proceedings. The challenged minutes contain admitted inaccuracies that have never been corrected. For example, the minutes for the January 3 council meetings erroneously include Long's name in the roll call of council members even though she was no longer a council member on that date.

In addition, the minutes do not include sufficient facts to understand and appreciate the rationale behind some of the village council's decisions. "[F]ull and accurate minutes must contain sufficient facts and information to permit the public to understand and appreciate the rationale behind the relevant public body's decision." White, 76 Ohio...