Dogs and Cats (Clark County)

Good afternoon,

This is to acknowledge receipt of your public records request, which was received at 12:30 a.m. on Friday, September 13, 2024. You requested:

“Any email or communications containing the word ‘Haitian’ sent to, from, or between government employees (including from residents)... Please include all attachments and images.”

You requested that the dates for the request be “between the dates of September 9, 2024, and the time this request is processed.” However, Ohio law states that the “end date” of a public records request is the date of the public records request. State ex rel. Hogan Lovells U.S., LLP v. Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, 2018-Ohio-5133, ¶ 29. As such, we consider your request to extend from September 9 to September 13, 2024, inclusive.
We will begin to do searches of the emails of all employees of the Clark County Auditor for the relevant search term for the dates stated above. The Clark County Auditor is only responsible for the records of this office, and not any other public office. Parks v. McClain, 2021-Ohio-3129 (Ct. of Cl.); Ault v. Cuyahoga County Probation Department, 2017-Ohio-4250 (Ct. of Cl.). As such, the search is limited to employees of this office.

Your request for “any communications” (other than emails) containing the relevant term, however, is overbroad and ambiguous. The search would require this office to comb over all documents produced or received by this office, or voicemails received by this office, for the desired term. A public office is not required to scour its records to identify the information of use to a requester. It is the responsibility of a requester to reasonably identify records sought. State ex rel. Parisi v. Heck, 2013-Ohio-4948 (2d Dist.); Axelrod v. Ohio Department of Commerce, 2019-Ohio-1821 (Ct. of Cl.); Barnes v. Cleveland Division of Records Administration, 2021-Ohio-212 (8th Dist.). On that basis, that portion of your public record request is denied.

You have the opportunity to revise your request. A request for voicemail must identify either the initiating phone number, or the receiving phone number, and be for a narrow time frame. Other documents (“any communication”) must identify the employee(s) that possess the document and what said document is.

Also please be advised that due to the nature of such transient records, the records may have been disposed of under the office’s records retention schedule.

We will inform you when the email records have been compiled, so that you may make payment for copies and mailing costs if required.

Sincerely,

Hillary Hamilton

Hillary Hamilton
Clark County Auditor
hhamilton@clarkcountyohio.gov<mailto:hhamilton@clarkcountyohio.gov>
(937) 521-1890

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Good morning Mr. Koebler,

We have completed your public records request, in the manner discussed in the previous email sent to you on September 16, 2024. We have attached the only responsive public record. Because this is being sent as an email attachment, there is no cost for providing you this copy.

We also found one other email that has been withheld, as it is not a public record because it is protected by the attorney-client privilege. As authority for this, we cite State ex rel. Toledo Blade Co. v. Toledo-Lucas Cty. Port Auth., 2009-Ohio-1767 (Ohio Supreme Court); State ex rel. Leslie v. Ohio Housing Finance Agency, 2005-Ohio-1508 (Ohio Supreme Court).

This concludes our response to your public records request.

Sincerely,

Hillary Hamilton
Clark County Auditor