NEXT WEBINAR: September 17
Although we’re sure you’ve been enjoying our online humor, we know you’ve missed us live over the last two months. Mark and Ryan have been taking our comedy act to smaller clubs, testing out new material.
We’re ready to go LIVE! That’s why we’ve scheduled our next webinar for September 17th at Noon. Put it on your calendar and spread the news, Mark and Ryan are back live and better than ever. We look forward to seeing you all there. And, as always, be sure to order your lunch here.
Court Case Alert: State ex rel. Platt v. Montgomery County Board of Elections
This is a big case. We’re going to take things out of order this time because, once again, the Ohio Supreme Court has given us a bombshell change to years and years of public records law. We told you about this case previously, but we wanted to wait until the Court ruled on pending motions to reconsider and made things final.
Well, the Court denied the motion to reconsider filed by the side that lost the case as well as several interested groups and media organizations that were very angry with the ruling. As we alluded to, this decision almost certainly represents another seismic shift in public records law. This time, the decision addresses whether an email sent by a public official’s private email account is a public record.
First, let’s talk about the facts of this case. The dispute arose from a heated political dispute in Montgomery County involving a candidate eligibility challenge. McDonald, a member of the Montgomery County Democratic Party Central Committee, filed to run as a Republican candidate for county commissioner. However, two Democrats challenged this move because McDonald had not resigned from her previous position with the Democratic party.
To help figure out the dispute, the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office prepared a confidential legal memorandum analyzing McDonald’s eligibility. They sent this memo via email to the Board of Elections members and deputy director Russell Joseph.
Here’s the important part: Joseph then forwarded that legal advice memo from his Board of Elections email to his personal email account. Once he received it on his personal email account, he forwarded the memo to one of the Democrats who originally challenged McDonald’s eligibility. The person who challenged his candidacy likely used the memo to draft the challenge and people had a suspicion that someone on the board must have leaked the opinion to the challenger. Naturally, a public records request was made to the Board of Elections to try and figure out whodunnit!