State ex rel. Youngstown City School Dist. Bd. of Edn. v. Youngstown
| Decision Date | 02 December 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 98-1428,98-1428 |
| Parties | The STATE ex rel. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF YOUNGSTOWN CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT v. CITY OF YOUNGSTOWN et al. |
| Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
In 1996, respondent city of Youngstown entered into a contract with Corrections Corporation of America, Inc. ("CCA"). The contract required CCA to build and operate a private, medium-security prison, in return for a three-year, one-hundred-percent exemption from taxation. In 1997, the Youngstown City Council enacted a resolution requiring respondent Youngstown Law Director Robert Bush to bring an action against CCA for breach of the prison contract. The city then claimed that following the city council's action, it entered into a contract with CCA modifying the three-year, one-hundred-percent exemption to a ten-year, seventy-five-percent exemption, with CCA to pay the city an amount equal to fifty percent of the school and other property taxes abated.
In June 1998, relator, the Board of Education of the Youngstown City School District, requested Law Director Bush to provide access under Ohio's Public Records Act, R.C. 149.43, to "all documents belonging to, in the possession, custody or control of, or available to the City of Youngstown, including, without limitation any department, division, agency or board thereof, including, without limitation, the officials, officers, employees, attorneys, or agents of any of the foregoing * * *, relating to any aspect of the project commonly known as the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center." The records the board requested included records of any attempt by the city to grant or enhance the tax exemption for the prison.
In July 1998, Bush advised the board that respondent Jeffrey Chagnot, Assistant to the Youngstown Mayor on Economic Development, had possession of the requested records and that the board could obtain copies from Chagnot. The board then requested that Chagnot provide access to the records. Chagnot did not respond to the request. Subsequent repeated requests by the board to Bush and Chagnot were similarly futile. Neither the city nor any of its representatives ever claimed that the requested records were exempt from disclosure.
The board subsequently filed this action for a writ of mandamus to compel respondents, Youngstown, Mayor George McKelvey, Finance Director Barbara Burtner, Bush, and Chagnot, to provide access to all records relating to the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, including records of any attempt to grant or enhance a tax exemption for the prison. The board also requested attorney fees. Although the respondents were properly served with copies of the board's complaint, they failed to plead or otherwise defend as provided by S.Ct.Prac.R. X and the Rules of Civil Procedure. The board thereafter moved for issuance of a peremptory writ based on its complaint and respondents' failure to file anything in response. Respondents failed to file any timely response to the board's motion.
This cause is now before the court for its determination under S.Ct.Prac.R. X(5).
Green & Hughes Co., L.P.A., and Martin J. Hughes, III, Worthington, for relator.
Under S.Ct.Prac.R. X(5), after the time for filing an answer to the complaint or motion to dismiss, we will either dismiss the case or issue an alternative or peremptory writ. If it appears beyond doubt that the board is entitled to the requested extraordinary relief, a peremptory writ should issue. State ex rel. Findlay Publishing Co. v. Schroeder (1996), 76 Ohio St.3d 580, 583, 669 N.E.2d 835, 839.
The board...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State ex rel. Strothers v. Rish
...construed against the public records custodian, and the custodian has the burden to establish an exemption. State ex rel. Youngstown City School Dist. Bd. of Edn., supra. In this instance, we find that respondent failed to establish that the subject records are exempted pursuant to R.C. {¶3......
- State v. White