Court Opinion

ID: 9948785
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-03-07 21:11:12.540643+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:25:50.206900
License: Public Domain

[Cite as Staton v. Cuyahoga Falls, 2024-Ohio-818.]

                                IN THE COURT OF CLAIMS OF OHIO

    MATTHEW STATON                                        Case No. 2023-00559PQ

          Requester                                       Judge Lisa L. Sadler

          v.                                              DECISION AND ENTRY

    CITY OF CUYAHOGA FALLS

          Respondent

          {¶1} In this public-records case, Respondent objects to a Special Master’s Report
and Recommendation.               The Court sustains Respondent’s first objection and finds
Respondent’s remaining objections moot for reasons that follow.

     I.        Background
          {¶2} On August 24, 2023, Requester Matthew Staton filed a public-records
complaint against Respondent. In the Complaint, Requester alleges that, on August 10,
2023, he “requested copy of all records, including name of any person, including
employees and season pass holders, that were scanned or otherwise searched in any
database, public or private, for sex crimes at any and all public facilities in July and August
of 2023.”1 Requester also alleges that, on August 21, 2023, he “received an email from

1         The Special Master has described Requester’s public-records requests as follows:

              “Please provide me with copies of all parent/ guardian consent forms that were signed
          by all minors who have had their valid government id or any other id scanned or searched
          in any public or private database for sex offenders at any public facility in July and August
          2023.”
              “Please provide a copy of all records, including names of any person, including
          employees and season pass holders, that were scanned or otherwise searched in any
          database, public or private, for sex crimes at any and all public facilities in July and August
          of 2023.” (Sic.)

(Report and Recommendation, 1.)
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Connor McHugh, Assistant Law Director[,] stating that there were ‘no records,’” and that,
on or about August 10, 2023, he “spoke with an employee at Water Works Family Aquatic
Center and was told that the records were stored in an Excel spreadshee[t]. The City of
Cuyahoga Falls is required to provide copies of these records.”
         {¶3} The Court appointed a Special Master who referred the case to mediation.
After mediation failed to successfully resolve all disputed issues between the parties, the
case was returned to the Special Master’s docket.
         {¶4} On December 12, 2023, the Special Master issued a Report and
Recommendation (R&R). The Special Master “recommends that:
         A.     Respondent be ordered to further investigate which portions of the
         records filed for in camera review are exempted from production by R.C.
         149.43(A)(1)(r) [a “public record” does not mean “[i]nformation pertaining to
         the recreational activities of a person under the age of eighteen”], to redact
         those portions, and to produce the balance of those records within 30 days
         of the entry a R.C. 2743.75(F)(2) order in this case.
         B.     Requester recover his filing fees and costs.
         C.     Respondent bear the balance of the costs of this case, and
         D.     All other relief be denied.”
(R&R, 9.)
         {¶5} On December 27, 2023, Respondent filed written objections to the Report and
Recommendation. Respondent’s counsel sent a copy of Respondent’s objections to
Requester by certified mail, return receipt requested, according to a Certificate of Service
accompanying the objections.
         {¶6} Requester has not filed a timely response to Respondent’s objections.

   II.        Law and Analysis
         {¶7} The General Assembly has created an alternative means to resolve public-
records disputes through the enactment of R.C. 2743.75. Welsh-Huggins v. Jefferson
Cty. Prosecutor’s Office, 163 Ohio St.3d 337, 2020-Ohio-5371, 170 N.E.3d 768, ¶ 11.
See R.C. 2743.75(A). Under Ohio law a requester “must establish entitlement to relief in
an action filed in the Court of Claims under R.C. 2743.75 by clear and convincing
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evidence.” Viola v. Cuyahoga Cty. Prosecutor’s Office, 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 110315,
2021-Ohio-4210, ¶ 16, citing Hurt v. Liberty Twp., 2017-Ohio-7820, 97 N.E.3d 1153, ¶ 27-
30 (5th Dist.). See Welsh-Huggins v. Jefferson Cty. Prosecutor’s Office, 163 Ohio St.3d
337, 2020-Ohio-5371, 170 N.E.3d 768, ¶ 32. It is a requester’s burden to prove, by clear
and convincing evidence, that the requested records exist and are public records
maintained by a respondent. See State ex rel. Cordell v. Paden, 156 Ohio St.3d 394,
2019-Ohio-1216, 128 N.E.3d 179, ¶ 8.
      {¶8} A public-records custodian has the burden to establish the applicability of an
exception to disclosure of a public record. State ex rel. Cincinnati Enquirer v. Jones-
Kelley, 118 Ohio St.3d 81, 2008-Ohio-1770, 886 N.E.2d 206, paragraph two of the
syllabus. In Jones-Kelley, the Ohio Supreme Court held:
      Exceptions to disclosure under the Public Records Act, R.C. 149.43, are
      strictly construed against the public-records custodian, and the custodian
      has the burden to establish the applicability of an exception. A custodian
      does not meet this burden if it has not proven that the requested records fall
      squarely within the exception. (State ex rel. Carr v. Akron, 112 Ohio St.3d
      351, 2006 Ohio 6714, 859 N.E.2d 948, ¶ 30, followed.)
Jones-Kelley at paragraph two of the syllabus.
      {¶9} Pursuant   to   R.C.   2743.75(F)(2),    any   objection    to   a   report   and
recommendation “shall be specific and state with particularity all grounds for the
objection.” Respondent presents four objections for the Court’s determination.

      Objection 1: The Special Master Erred in Holding These Documents are
Records.

      Objection 2: The Special Master Erred in Holding the City Has Failed to
Identify Exempted Information.

      Objection 3: The Special Master Erred in Holding the City’s Claim of
Inextricably Intertwined Records Moot.
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       Objection 4: The Special Master Erred in Holding that Staton has Proven by
Clear and Convincing Evidence That He is Entitled to Any Records.

       {¶10} Respondent’s first objection challenges the Special Master’s determination
that the requested documents are records. The definition of record in R.C. 149.011
contains three elements: “they must be (1) documents, devices, or items, including
electronic records, (2) created or received by or coming under the jurisdiction of the
[public] office, (3) that serve to document the organization, functions, policies, decisions,
procedures, operations, or other activities of the office.”      State ex rel. Data Trace
Information Servs. v. Cuyahoga Cty. Fiscal Officer, 131 Ohio St.3d 255, 2012-Ohio-753,
963 N.E.2d 1288, ¶ 31, citing R.C. 149.011(G). In the Report and Recommendation, the
Special Master determined that “several spreadsheets collecting information gathered
while determining whether persons 16 years old or older seeking admission to the City’s
aquatic facilities are sex offenders” (R&R, 3) “unquestionably” satisfied “the first two
defining elements of a record” because they are “‘documents’ and copies of ‘electronic
records’” (R&R, 4) and they “were ‘created’ by city employees who input the data and are
under the City’s ‘jurisdiction’ because the City was able to retrieve and file them in this
case. They also have the third defining element because they ‘document the *** policies,
*** operations, or other activities of the office.’” (R&R, 4.) The Special Master explained:
       The spreadsheets were created in the course of executing “a City of
       Cuyahoga Falls policy which prohibits sex offenders from entering certain
       City facilities” and verify City employees’ actions to implement those
       policies. Response to Complaint, pp. 12-13, ¶¶ 5-8. They therefore
       “document” one aspect of one of the City’s “policies”: the dates and times
       that it took specific actions to implement the policy against admitting sex
       offenders to City facilities. They also “document” the City’s “operations and
       *** activities” by memorializing the information that City employees
       gathered.
(R&R, 4.)
       {¶11} However, the Special Master found that the existence of the third element
for what constituted a record was “a closer call” “because of cases holding that names
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and addresses of private citizens were not records.” (R&R, 4.) The Special Master
determined that several cases, including State ex rel. McCleary v. Roberts, 88 Ohio St.3d
365, 2000-Ohio-345, 725 N.E.2d 1144, did not “control” in this instance. (R&R, 4.)
       {¶12} The Court respectfully disagrees with the Special Master’s view that
McCleary does not control in this instance. Rather, the Court finds that the facts, as set
forth by the Special Master, align with McCleary. In McCleary the city of Columbus
implemented a photo identification program for its Recreation and Parks Department. The
program required parents of children who used the city’s pools and other recreation
facilities to provide certain personal information regarding their children (e.g., the names,
home addresses, family information, emergency contact information, and medical history
information of participating children) and, in return, each child was provided a
photographic identification card to present when using pools and recreation centers.
Cornell McCleary requested a copy of the Department’s electronic database, which
contained the personal, identifying information regarding those children who were
participating in the photo identification program. The city’s Assistant Director of
Recreation for the Department of Recreation and Parks refused to release the database
and provide the requested information.
       {¶13} McCleary sought a writ of mandamus in the Franklin County Court of
Common Pleas, and, after the appropriate appeals, the Ohio Supreme Court accepted
jurisdiction. The Ohio Supreme Court held: “Personal information of private citizens,
obtained by a ‘public office,’ reduced to writing and placed in record form and used by the
public office in implementing some lawful regulatory policy, is not a ‘public record’ as
contemplated by R.C. 149.43.” McCleary at syllabus. The personal information gathered
“does nothing to document any aspect of the City’s Recreation and Parks Department.”
Id. at 368. The “disclosure of information about private citizens that is accumulated in
various governmental files but that reveals little or nothing about an agency’s own
conduct” does not serve the purpose of “shed[ding] light on an agency’s performance of
its statutory duties[.]” Id. Given that, the Ohio Supreme Court concluded that the intrusion
upon the constitutionally protected privacy of private citizens, including children, was
unwarranted. Id., citing United States Dept. of Justice v. Reports Commt. for Freedom of
the Press, 489 U.S. 749, 780, 109 S.Ct. 1468, 103 L.Ed..2d 774 (1989).
Case No. 2023-00559PQ                          -6-                        DECISION & ENTRY

          {¶14} Upon careful consideration, the Court finds that this matter is analogous to
McCleary as Respondent obtained the personal information of private citizens and
reduced this information to writing when it implemented its regulatory policy. Unlike the
regulatory policy itself—which could be a proper object of a public records request—the
information collected from the private citizens pursuant to the policy does not in any way
shed light upon the city’s functions. Accordingly, the disclosure of the information would
not contribute to citizen oversight of the city’s performance of its duties. Therefore, as in
McCleary, even though the personal information collected by the city was placed in record
form, it was not a public record because it does not meet the third element—that the
document “serves to document the organization, functions, policies, operations, or other
activities of the office.” R.C. 149.011(G). Therefore, Respondent’s first objection is well
taken and is sustained.
          {¶15} Because Respondent’s first objection has been sustained, Respondent’s
remaining objections are rendered moot and a determination of Respondent’s remaining
objections is not required. See City of Grove City v. Clark, 10th Dist. Franklin No. 01AP-
1369, 2002-Ohio-4549, ¶ 11 (actions or opinions are moot when they have become
fictitious, colorable, hypothetical, academic or dead); see also State ex rel. Karmasu v.
Tate, 83 Ohio App.3d 199, 205, 614 N.E.2d 827 (4th Dist.1992) citing Coulverson v. Ohio
Adult Parole Auth., 4th Dist. Ross No. 1790, at 4-5, 1992 WL 97805 (May 11, 1992) (a
trial court “is not required to consider any legal theory, or argument, beyond that which
will adequately dispose of the case at hand”). Accord PDK Laboratories, Inc. v. United
States Drug Enforcement Administration (D.C.Cir.2004), 362 F.3d 786, 799, 360 U.S.
App. D.C. 344 (Roberts, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment) (expressing
“the cardinal principle of judicial restraint,” i.e., “if it is not necessary to decide more, it is
necessary not to decide more”).

   III.      Conclusion
          {¶16} For reasons set forth above, the Court SUSTAINS Respondent’s first
objection and finds Respondent’s second, third, and fourth objections moot. The Court
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rejects the Special Master’s Report and Recommendation. Court costs are assessed
against Requester. The Clerk shall serve upon all parties notice of this judgment and its
date of entry upon the journal.

                                          LISA L. SADLER
                                          Judge

Filed February 6, 2024
Sent to S.C. Reporter 3/7/24