The Huber Heights City Council will ask the Ohio Auditor’s office to investigate an ongoing public records controversy.
Councilman Ed Lyons proposed the city ask the auditor to determine:
- If public records were removed from public offices without authorization;
- Whether public records were destroyed;
- If any state laws have been violated;
- The identity of any individuals who may have engaged in such activity.
Council voted to add the item, which was not advertised to the public, to the agenda during the meeting Monday night.
All present members of council voted in favor of the investigation except for Vice Mayor Tyler Starline, who said he thought it was “shameful” to have “that kind of surprise” added to the agenda. Councilman Richard Shaw recused himself from the discussion due to “imminent litigation.”
The city has acknowledged it is missing one page of minutes from a council meeting in 2008. Additionally, Lyons has accused Shaw and Councilman Glenn Otto of breaking the law by leaving City Hall with documents during off hours to be placed on the work session agenda.
Shaw and Otto claim the documents they removed – including four boxes worth – were copies and that no laws were broken. Nor, they said, were they involved in the record disappearing.
“I guarantee you it did not come into our possession,” said Otto regarding the missing record.
The meeting became argumentative when Law Director Alan Schaeffer and Starline, an attorney, engaged in a loud back-and-forth about the issue.
“In spite of herculean efforts to bring this thing to a resolution in a different way, those efforts have not been fruitful and so now an investigation is being asked for,” said Schaeffer. “Something needs to be done here. This council cannot continue with a resolution to this issue fairly timely.”
