(DAVID HELD AUDIO) CONCERNED CITIZENS OF NORTH CANTON BRING LAW DIRECTOR TIM FOX TO HEEL!

UPDATE:  06:51 PM

Public records

        [Jeff Peters, president of council]

        Today at 3:22 PM

To:   tramols@att.net

Martin, I would like to thank you for your report on the issue of public records. However, I will take you to task regarding your opinion on me.

I have always taken the stance that public records should be delivered to Chuck, Miriam and Jamie  and anyone else who may make a request in the medium that they request.

After I became president and before Gail retired, that is exactly what I did.

Even though we had an opinion from our law director, I instructed our clerk(Gail) to email records as well as the meeting agendas and all accompanying documents to all who wanted them.

When Gail retired and before our new clerk came on board, the law director was handling his and the clerks duties.

We knew, and I suspect that the few folks who make the majority of records requests knew, that there was going to be some hiccups.

Now that Mary Beth Bailey is in her new position, we are going to accommodate all requests in the medium that they request.

My reasoning for asking the OAG their opinion on the Law Directors interpretation was for my information only. I've had multiple phone conversations with Miriam and Jamie and told them that once our new clerk was on board, we would be back to normal business, and that is exactly where we are at today.

To characterize the situation as I or council trying to make life difficult for the few who make the majority of records requests could not be further from the truth.

For example, I've known Miriam since I was 9yrs old and I hold her and her opinions in very high regard. She is someone that I can go to for advice and direction, and know that she'll never steer me down the wrong path. I would never intentionally bring harm to her, or anyone else in our great city! It is my intention, moving forward, to lead in an open and transparent manner which will bring honor to all that call North Canton home. We have many difficult decisions on the horizon and we owe it to our neighbors to give that our full attention, and that is exactly what we are going to do.

Regards, Jeff Peters

UPDATE:  09:49 AM

E-mail regarding Public Records Training going on in North Canton this morning:

Public Records Training

        chuckosborne1949@gmail.com
        Today at 9:40 AM

To:  Martin Olson

Ironic that a Public Records training class is scheduled here in North Canton this morning. Has been scheduled for several months. Just arrived myself. Miriam Baughman will be here as well.

Sent from my HTC One on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network

ORIGINAL BLOG

A VIDEO ENCORE

CITIZEN BAUGHMAN

TAKES

FOX

NORTH CANTON COUNCIL

TO TASK ON

PUBLIC RECORDS

Although, at about 5:15 p.m. yesterday, North Canton mayor David Held called to thank The Stark County Political Report for The Report role in helping to bring about a change in the way North Canton responds to citizen public records requests, the credit belongs to the Concerned Citizens (chiefly Miriam Baughman) of North Canton, civic activist Chuck Osborne and citizen Holly Pierpont.



The import of the telephone call is that Peters sat down with Law Director Tim Fox yesterday (which the SCPR was told over the weekend was in the works when Peters returned from vacation) is a lesson of great significance to Stark County's core of civic activists who take on the hand of various branches of Stark County government when elected/appointed officials decide to become a problem rather than a help to Stark County's taxpaying citizen base.

Since he was appointed law director in September, 2012, former North Canton Ward 3 councilman Tim Fox assumed the role of "tough man" (which the SCPR thinks was his taking a cue from North Canton city council members and Mayor Held) and started giving everyday citizens "a hard way to go" in obtaining public records.

Not to exonerate Fox at all, but the SCPR thinks the North Canton public should blame Held (the mayor); former Ward 4 councilman Jon Snyder (as council president, apparently the leader in the effort), Jeff Peters (now the council president), Marcia Kiesling, Dan Griffith, Doug Foltz, Mark Cerreta and Stephanie Werren for the hostility that developed between North Canton government and North Canton citizens on the matter of access to public records.

While the focus has been on Fox's refusal (on council's approval, he says) to honor e-mail requests for public records (including one made by the SCPR), the difficulties run much deeper than the e-mail factor.

Right now we are only dealing with words.

Whether or not there has been a real change in the attitude of North Canton government through Fox and the clerk of council office will only be known through the passage of time.

The SCPR thinks that Law Director Fox will be drug kicking and screaming to a "new" citizen friendly posture on the matter of access to North Canton's public records.

The Report suspects Fox will continue to be Held's and Council's "tough guy" designee.

The Report credits Miriam Baughman (supported by Concerned Citizens leader Jaime McCleaster and the overall membership of the group) with putting the hard work of research and confrontation in motion that The Report believes has been the major factor in the North Canton turnaround.



The Baughman/Concerned Citizens/Osborne/Pierpont success should give heart to all Stark County activists who are dissatisfied with the way local governments throughout Stark County are interacting with the taxpaying citizen base.

Readers should take a minute and go back and review the SCPR blog of July 2, 2014 to get a full appreciation of Baughman's superlative work of poring over Ohio attorney general pronouncements on public records.

All too often, elected and appointed government officials forget who they are in office to serve.

However, one Miriam Baughman is enough to awake them from their slumber.

In all the developments on this issue, it appears that the SCPR right was "right on the mark" on the suggestion by North Canton officials (including Fox) that he was contemplating getting clarification from the OAG's office, to wit:

There has been talk that Director Fox might seek an opinion of the OAG's office as to the legality of his unwillingness to use e-mail to transmit copies of public records.

The SCPR thinks that such a suggestion is a lot of Fox "huffing and puffing" inasmuch as the OAG's mediation service is an  existing available forum that has been around for some time but which the law director appears to not have sought out.

Well, take a look at this "e-mail" (don't you just love the irony of the medium of the communication) exchange between the OAG's office and North Canton citizen Holly Pierpont.

Gold text equals Pierpont

Green text equals Ohio attorney general

        Holly Pierpont
        Jul 15 at 3:31 PM

To:   Rmccleaster@aol.com
        tramols@att.net [Stark County Political Report]

Mr. McCleaster,

Upon recently reading a blog on the SCPR website regarding your struggle to receive public records from the North Canton city law director, I forwarded the story to the Ohio Attorney General.  Below is the response I received from them today.

Take care,
Holly Pierpont

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:
> From: Jeff Clark <Jeffery.Clark@ohioattorneygeneral.gov>
> Date: July 15, 2014 at 3:16:45 PM EDT
> To: "holly.pierpont@att.net" <holly.pierpont@att.net>
> Cc: Kristen DeVenny <Kristen.DeVenny@ohioattorneygeneral.gov>
> Subject: FW: CID # 940387 - Pierpont
>
> Dear Ms. Pierpont,
>
> I wanted to let you know we’d received your e-mail, and that we appreciate your interest in the area of public access law.  Although you hadn’t specifically asked us to contact the City, I gave Mr. Fox a call to see whether the city or the county prosecutor had contacted our Opinions Section for a formal opinion, and if not whether we could facilitate that contact.  However, Mr. Fox advised me that some further discussion of the legal points, and city policy, had already concluded, and that the results of that discussion will likely be posted on the city web site soon.  You may want to check their web site over the next couple of day.
>
> Thanks again for your interest.
>
> Jeff Clark
>
> Assistant Attorney General
>
> From: Kristen DeVenny
> Sent: Friday, July 11, 2014 4:38 PM
> To: Public Records Unit
> Subject: CID # 940387 - Pierpont
>
> This matter is assigned to Jeff.
>
> Thanks!
>
> -----Constituent Information-----
>
> MatterID:       940387
> Constituent:  Holly Pierpont
>
...
>
> County:         No County entered
>                     330-999-9999
>                     Email: holly.pierpont@att.net
>                     Received Date:  07/02/2014

> --------Original Message--------
>
> It has come to my attention that North Canton City Law Director, Tim Fox, has reached out to the OAG for assistance in interpretation of the Ohio Sunshine Laws pertaining to recent public records request originating with North Canton, Ohio constituents.
>
> I would like to bring to the attention of the OAG, this blog written by a local Stark county reporter, which has highlighted the true struggle that North Canton citizens are encountering in obtaining public records according to the law.
>
> http://starkpoliticalreport.blogspot.com/2014/07/elected-north-canton-officials-either.html
>
> http://starkpoliticalreport.blogspot.com/2014/06/videos-blast-away-session-at-north.html
>
> I would like the Attorney General to help by:
>
> I would like the OAG to consider the requests embedded in this blog, as well as the responses sent by law director, Tim Fox, in their "interpretation" to secure that the citizens of North Canton should not have to jump through extreme hoops to request what is rightfully due to them via a standard public records request.  Please review the links included in this concern, for a 360 degree view of the issue at hand. 

Thanks.

Undoubtedly, it was an eyeopener to Law Director Fox to have gotten a telephone call from the OAG's office.

An office which commented last week that Fox's position of refusing to send public records as being "ridiculous."

North Canton officials are trying to make the best of a bad situation that they and they alone created.

The SCPR encourage citizens across Stark County to take heart from the success of the likes of Baughman, Chuck Osborne, the Concerned Citizens of North Canton and Holly Pierpont and take up the mantle of holding their respective local government accountable to the taxpaying public.

An appropriate close to this blog is an e-mail response from Baughman to the SCPR on her reaction to the change in North Canton's public records policy, to wit:

Attorney General e mail

        Miriam Baughman
        Jul 15 at 8:17 PM

To:  tramols@att.net

My comment is:   Why did it ever come to this?     Why didn't our North Canton City Law Director read and interpret the Ohio Public Records Law correctly frpm the beginning?

Thanks

Miriam Baughman

"ELECTED" NORTH CANTON OFFICIALS EITHER "UNWILLING" OR "UNABLE" TO CONTROL "UNELECTED" LAW DIRECTOR

UPDATE:  07/02/2014 AT 1:50 PM

Remarks for Your July 2, 2014 Blog

From;  Chuck Osborne
            Today at 1:05 PM

To:  Martin Olson

Tuesday, July 2, 2014

Hello Martin,

It is sad to say but North Canton’s first full-time Law Director, Tim Fox, apparently spends the bulk of his time fighting the very citizens who pay his salary. I have dozens of letters from Mr. Fox explaining why he cannot (more like WILL NOT) comply with a Public Records request.

It is major litigation whenever one makes a records request in North Canton. Generally Law Director Fox is not shy about denying a records request, but in a recent records request Law Director Fox penned the name of another on the denial letter when clearly the letter was written by Mr. Fox himself.

That letter, attached to this email, is one such example. In that instance, it purports to come from former Clerk of Council, Gail Kalpac. The tone of the letter, the language used, the legal citations noted, do not mask the true author of the letter, namely Law Director Fox. The Council Clerk did not sign the letter, as for obvious reasons, she did not write the letter.

The problems with compliance with Public Records Requests, as the title of your Blog alludes to, goes directly to North Canton Officials.

North Canton City government has had a “closed door mentality” for many years and it extends to City Officials. Presently mirroring what we are seeing in Washington with the request for emails from IRS officials, I too am having the same difficulty.  My requests for emails from Council members and the Mayor, alluded to by the real author of the letter noted above, continue to be ignored.

North Canton elected officials want to handle the “Public’s Business” in a confidential manner that suits their needs and not in the manner that is beneficial to the public.

So while Law Director Fox is a “Big” problem for the citizens of North Canton, the “Bigger” problem is found with North Canton’s elected officials.

Thanks,

Chuck Osborne


Editor's note:  The documents that Osborne refers to can be viewed at this end of today's blog under APPENDIX.

ORIGINAL BLOG

You talk about missing the point, it appears that such is what is up with North Canton City Council president Daniel "Jeff" Peters.

The SCPR has been the recipient of a storm of protests that North Canton civic activists are making against North Canton law director Tim Fox.  Fox is unelected and serves under "appointment" by and therefore at the pleasure of the elected council persons of The Dogwood City.

As far as The Report is concerned, Peters recent response to Concerned Citizens of North Canton spokesman Jamie McCleaster is weak indeed (see the response below).

There has been a running battle between various members of North Canton's Concerned Citizens and non-member but superlatively vigorous civic activist Chuck Osborne seemingly from the day Fox  took over as law director (in September, 2012).

• SCPR Note:  McCleaster by the way was a candidate along with Councilwoman Marcia Kiesling, Dan Griffith and Mark Cerreta in the November, 2013 election, to wit:
•  
  

Republican Fox was elected as North Canton Ward 3 councilman over incumbent Republican Jeff Davies in the November, 2011 election.

Knowing what they know now, had the Concerned Citizens known that Tim Fox was going to - as some think - be in a better position to become North Canton's law director (again, an unelected office), they would have taken on an active role in Davies' campaign to turn 111 votes around to secure Davies' election.

SCPR Note:  For background on the Fox appointment, see The Report's blog of September 12, 2012 entitled "Home Cookin in North Canton?"

To hear and believe their accounts, the Concerned Citizens are having "one devil of a time" getting public records from the now Law Director Fox.

The Stark County Political Report does believe Fox is going to extraordinary lengths to give these citizens a "tough way to go" in getting "the peoples' records."

And The Report blames a majority of North Canton City Council members for creating conditions for Fox to think that he is doing exactly what the majority appointed him to in the first place.  It appears to the SCPR that council is enabling Fox and that Fox being the fist is an "hand-in-glove" operation.

And it seems that Fox clearly senses the markedly implied marching orders and is working overtime to please those who appointed him in the first place.

The effect is taken by the SCPR to be an "eclipsing of Ohio's Sunshine Law" in terms of the accessibility of public records to the public.

The SCPR's take on the "protestations to the contrary" (i.e. council's desire to be be transparent and accommodating to citizens' easily obtaining public records) on the part of various council members, including Peters, is that they are being politically correct and that they are privately "delighted" that Fox is playing tough with the likes of  Concerned Citizens members Jamie McCleaster and Miriam Baughman.

The Report believes that they are "collateral damage" in council's primary mission to rein-in long term activist Chuck Osborne who has been "one huge thorn in the side" of a parade of North Canton council persons since he was defeated for reelection in 2001 after having served one term as councilman.

Osborne, now that Jon Snyder is no longer on council, is far more knowledgeable about the ins and outs of being a councilperson and in the institutional knowledge of North Canton government and politics than anybody currently on council.

You talk about "a burr in a tender place" for some of the egos now holding council seats, Osborne is a burr that hurts and hurts and hurts.

And the SCPR thinks, a main mission of some council members is not governance of a increasingly financially troubled city, but to "politically" cold cock Osborne.

Of course, Tim Fox knows how incisive, to the point and direct the SCPR is.

Early on (December, 2012) after  being selected by council as law director, he made a point to point out to The Report, as he was approached for an camera interview, of how tough he is and he was not going to grant an interview.

Fox is not the first Stark County politico/government official who has played the role of a coward with the SCPR and he will not be the last.

As The Report has repeatedly demonstrated in the six plus years of blogging, the SCPR camera records some telling and embarrassing responses to zinging questions put to various and sundry government officials by this blogger.

If Fox thinks he is so tough, why won't he agree to a "no questions barred" interview?

Need the SCPR say more?

Returning to the first paragraph of this blog, council president Jeff Peters is making it appear that he wants to solve the citizen dissatisfaction with Fox's handling of public records requests.

Here is an excerpt from a texted e-mail he sent public records requester Jamie McCleaster.

(colored text:  McCleaster's word,  bold, white, italicized:  Peters)


From:  Jamie McCleaster, Jul 1 at 7:22 PM

To:  Martin Olson

Martin,

Here is the text that Miriam and I received from North Canton City Council President Jeff Peters this afternoon. I'd assume that this is in reference to the separate phone conversations we each had with Mr. Peters last night, and my email that was sent to N. Canton's Director of Law (CCed to Mr. Peters and Council VP Foltz).

"Today I asked Tim to contact the AG's office to review our public records policy. It is my intent to clear the air on this issue once and for all! It is my position as the President of council to be open and transparent regarding all city business. Once we have an opinion on our policy and any interpretation therein, we will share that finding with any and all that wants it. Although I appreciate all of your input on this matter, once we have the opinion from the AG, any concerns thereafter will be directed to the Director of Administration. As you all know, city council does not enforce law, they create laws. The mayor and his administration enforce all ordinances. If you have any questions regarding enforcement of current ordinances, please contact Mike Grimes.

Thank you, 
Jeff Peters

This text was sent to us this afternoon, 7/1/14 at 3:50pm.

Hmm?

Okay.

It is my intent to clear the air on this issue once and for all! It is my position as the President of council to be open and transparent regarding all city business.

But?

Once we have an opinion on our policy and any interpretation therein, we will share that finding with any and all that wants it. (emphasis added)

Here is the rub, the SCPR thinks.

"... And any interpretation therein ... "

What will Fox include in his communication with the Ohio Attorney General?

Will it include these sharp exchanges to McCleaster and Baughman?

And McCleaster's response:

Here is the "full" McCleaster original request.

What the SCPR thinks is really odd on Fox's part, is his seeming fixation on not responding "as requested" via e-mail.

The Report had a similar experience with Fox on a public records request.

As with McCleaster, the request was for a e-mail attachment of a pdf or equivalent file of the requested record.

How was the record sent?

A Compact Disc which, of course, cost The Report $2.40.

Admittedly, no big deal.

But the point is that Fox is doing things his way and not as requested by the requester as is mandated by Ohio's Sunshine Law as pointed out in the Ohio attorney general's publication on the law as it pertains to providing public records.

Will Fox in his communication make sure that the attorney general's office knows that he is disregarding the requester's chosen format of transmission?

Maybe, just maybe, one of the readers of this blog will send a link of this blog and a LINK of  last week's blog to the Ohio attorney general's office to ensure that the OAG gets the full story?

Mister Fox has to forgive the SCPR's skepticism that he will be all that inclusive.

And, of course, there are the two Miriam Baughman requests.  One in March of this year and another just a few days ago in June.

From Fox (the June request):

 From Fox (the March request):

Now who in this whole wide world thinks that Fox is being citizen friendly?

It is completely understandable why Fox would not want to do an interview with The Stark County Political Report.

The SCPR has a background and a knowledge base and a style of interviewing that The Report is confident that Fox could not handle.

So what has he done and what will he continue to do?

Cut and run!

That's it.

He is comfortable in the knowledge that North Canton City Council has put him in a position of being answerable to nobody; not even to them.

The North Canton voting public should be holding council responsible for cultivating an antagonistic relationship with Osborne, McCleaster and Baughman.

For it is readily apparent to the SCPR that Fox in is charge in North Canton government.

Council and Mayor David Held have promoted Tim Fox being North Canton government's fist in the cloak of councilmantic and executive gloves.

Council president Peters can try to absolve himself and those council persons who, The Report thinks,  "in reality" support every "let me be difficult" move that Fox has made vis-a-vis North Canton citizens and their exercise of democratic rights, but the North Canton public should not be buying.

Although I appreciate all of your input on this matter, once we have the opinion from the AG, any concerns thereafter will be directed to the Director of Administration. As you all know, city council does not enforce law, they create laws. The mayor and his administration enforce all ordinances. If you have any questions regarding enforcement of current ordinances, please contact Mike Grimes. (emphasis added)

The SCPR is not buying.

"If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck," guess what?

It is a duck! no?

President Peters can talk he wants about transparency and openness.

"The proof is in the pudding!"

And the pudding here is that council has enabled and condoned Fox's belligerence.

There is little doubt with the SCPR that council and Fox have a hand-in-glove operation going in full flower!


APPENDIX

NORTH CANTON BATTLE CONTINUES: FOR THE PRINCIPLE OF IT!

Whether one agrees with the legal positions of Jamie McCleaster and Hillary Mueller or not, they should be admired for pursuing vindication of their respective campaigns for North Canton City Council this past November.

They did lose on ethics violation complaints filed with the Ohio Elections Commission (LINK to prior SCPR blog) days before the November 5th general election.

For a full refresher on the gist of the Snyder and Kiesling complaints go to this SCPR blog LINK.

The two offending pieces (from the Kiesling and Snyder perspective of campaign literature  were these:

The two highlighted areas of the above-graphics zero in on the core of the Kiesling/Snyder complaints in terms of the allegation of their falsity.

McCleaster ran against Councilwoman at Large Marcia Kiesling and Mueller took on Ward 4 councilman and president of council Jon Snyder.

As if losing the ethics complaint were not enough, both McCleaster and Mueller lost in the election to their respective opponents.

While the Elections Commission decision was made by the commission on November 4th, the actual orders were not issued until December 19th.

Here is an extract of the order made in McCleaster's case:

On Monday, Warren Price ("Of Counsel":  Allen Schulman and Associates) filed on a pro bono (the SCPR is told) basis an appeal of both the McCleaster and Mueller decisions.

Focusing on once again on McCleaster (so far as the SCPR can determine, a identical filing was done in the Mueller case), here is a copy of the Notice of Appeal (Note:  Source of document is the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas website):

Interesting, no?

Here you have two Stark County citizens who having had the disappointment of losing elections but who are determined to be vindicated on their belief that they did nothing wrong in publishing the campaign literature that they did.

Here is McCleaster's full press release commenting on the filing:

Media Contact
Jamie McCleaster
+1 330 806 7381
Rmccleaster@aol.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

1/3/2014

FORMER CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE TO APPEAL OHIO ELECTIONS COMMISSION DECISION OVER CAMPAIGN LITERATURE

North Canton – Attorneys for North Canton resident and candidate for Council At-Large in last November’s election, Robert J “Jamie” McCleaster filed an appeal Friday in Columbus against the Ohio Elections Commission over a ruling in regards to McCleaster’s campaign literature. 

The week before the November 5, 2013 election, McCleaster’s opponent, North Canton City Council Vice President Marcia Kiesling filed two complaints with the Ohio Elections Commission. 

Her complaints were in regards to McCleaster listing Kiesling’s public meeting attendance rate of 72%, which was later found to be accurate by the Commission, and his wording used to describe ordinance 47-13 which granted raises for the city’s elected officials upon the start of the new term in December. The verbiage around the raises was deemed to be false, the appeal calls that decision into question.

When asked why he’s pursuing the appeal McCleaster said, “I still firmly believe that the words I chose for my campaign literature are accurate. I’m appealing this solely to right the wrong, and fight for what I believe is right!”

Robert J “Jamie” McCleaster is a lifelong (3rd generation) resident of North Canton, and a graduate of Hoover High School and The University of Akron. An engaged North Canton resident, Jamie has been active within the community for many years, serving on city committees and as the President/Board member of the North Canton Jaycees. Jamie lives on Pierce Ave with his wonderful wife Katie, their daughter Hailey, and son Jack. 

For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/mccleaster. 

While the Stark County Political Report does not take a position on the merits of the contest between Kiesling/McCleaster and Snyder/Mueller, the Report is impressed that McCleaster and Mueller believe so much in the rightness of their case that they are willing to forge ahead seeking vindication of their legal position.

Moreover, Warren Price ("Of Counsel, Allen Schulman and Associates [Schulman is Canton City Council president]) is to be commended for providing free legal representation.

One the confusing things about Price's work for McCleaster and Mueller in the original hearing is the effort (reportedly by Sndyer) to challenge Price's right to represent.  Sndyer, as the SCPR understands his position, is said to be saying that because Price had accepted employment (which turned out not to be the case) that a conflict in interest existed and that therefore Price should not be permitted by the Elections Commission to represent.

The SCPR lauds Price for pressing ahead and providing McCleaster and Mueller with their right to defend themselves in our democratic-republican system of government.

Of course, the SCPR, like no other Stark County media, will stay with this case so that Stark Countians can see it it progress - in all its detail - to the end.