New details in a public records spat over a document missing from City Hall show two councilmen took city documents out of the building — but those two men say their actions are aboveboard.
Councilman Ed Lyons attached to Tuesday’s Huber Heights work session agenda copies of three surveillance video screen shots. The photos illustrate Councilmembers Richard Shaw and Glenn Otto entering city hall empty handed on a Saturday in February, but leaving with sheets of of paper in hand.
Otto and Shaw argue the screen shots are unremarkable, because the records removed are copies of originals.
“Nobody should be shocked that we are going into city hall and doing research because that’s what we said we would do last year,” said Shaw. He said he has never taken original documents out of city hall.
“Shaw and I have absolutely nothing to hide,” Otto said in a separate interview. “From the very beginning we came out and, since January, we said we’d be doing our research.”
Last month, city officials identified that a public record was missing from the city archives. As part of the response, the city has tasked the law director with reviewing ways to improve records security.
“We will have a presentation by our city attorney, who said one missing document is a serious issue for the city,” Lyons said. “I wanted to bring it to his attention and everyone else’s about the possibility of additional missing records.”
Lyons said he reviewed surveillance footage from the February date in question.
Otto said the controversy is manufactured by the “old guard” of city council. Lyons is one of several council members whose terms predate Shaw’s and Otto’s election.
“Change is a really tough pill to swallow when you’re the old person,” Otto said.
Neither Otto nor Shaw were immediately able to identify what documents are featured in the images.
“I have no clue what that may be, because quite honestly we have all sorts of copies of historical stuff,” Otto said. “We’ve been doing research from about the second week of January.”
Council will meet for a work session 6 p.m., Tuesday, at 6131 Taylorsville Road.
Correction: A previous version of this story implied video surveillance of councilmen accessing city hall in February was related to a missing record in May. While both instances deal with records, the events are chronologically unrelated.
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