This newspaper first reported about the missing city document in Huber Heights and will continue to follow the story as council discusses ways to secure your public records.
The city law director is urging the city administration find ways to improve security over the city’s public documents after one paper record has disappeared.
One record, a page of minutes of a 2008 meeting of the city council, has gone missing from the council archives.
“It’s my recommendation that we look at this for what I think it is,” said law director Alan Schaeffer during a recent council meeting. “That somebody along the way — or somebodies, possibly — getting into or out of the book misapplied or misplaced the first page of those minutes.”
Schaeffer said he reviewed key fob records of individuals entering and exiting the building for the days around the time the record is believed to have gone missing. At an April 19 council meeting Councilman Richard Shaw read aloud from the book containing the now-missing meeting minutes. Clerk of Council Anthony Rodgers later discovered the documents were missing.
Schaeffer said his review found some members of council and city administration access city hall during hours closed to the public.
Instead of pursuing a “further, very intense, costly, comprehensive and probably not very conclusive investigation” into the missing record, Schaeffer recommended city council instead explore securing the city’s records.
“They’re open to anybody at anytime,” he said.
Council members Shaw and Glenn Otto said they have gone to City Hall on weekends to do research using public records. Both members said they support exploring new methods for the city to store records securely, but wanted the records to remain reasonably accessible to the public at all times.
Otto said a door and lock were installed recently to the records room without notice shortly after the April 19 council meeting.
“After I noticed that, I went to speak with the city manager and I told him I will not be kept out of those public records,” Otto said.
Otto said the door has since been unlocked.
Schommer said he was unable to comment on the story this week “due to scheduling.”
Further discussion of this issue will continue at the city’s June 7 work session.
“The law director said it was a serious issue that we have a missing document,” Councilman Ed Lyons said. “As custodians of the missing records we need to do the best we can. The security of the people’s records have been tested and they have failed.”
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