Delay costing city money

STRUTHERS — A Cincinnati-area man is still trying to recover legal fees from the city that stem from his open-records violation claim against it.

Ross Hardin of Milford, Ohio, sued Struthers in the Ohio Supreme Court because the city would not give him records in a burglary case.

Hardin had visited the city in November and requested records from a pending criminal case involving Nicholas Serrecchio, who had been charged in the case, Vindicator files indicate.

Municipal Court clerk Linda Aey would not release the files, telling him he would have to file for discovery from the prosecutor’s office.

Hardin made his request in writing a few days later and was contacted in late December by a Struthers police detective, asking why he wanted them and what his relationship was to the case.

Ohio open-records law does not allow officials to require an explanation as to why someone wants records.

A few days later, city law director Carol Clemente Wagner met with Hardin and gave him “a single-page document,” which was all she felt comfortable providing.

A search warrant and other documents related to the case were not released, because the city said the matter was still an ongoing investigation, Vindicator files say.

On Jan. 6, Hardin filed an action with the court asking it to compel the city to release the documents and to pay legal fees and costs.

Through his attorney, Curt Hartman of Amelia, Ohio, Hardin asked for $15,855 in attorney fees and for $700 in expenses. Hartman also asked for statutory damages of $1,000.

About three weeks after the action was filed, Struthers turned over the records to Hardin, so there was never a court ruling or order in the case concerning them.

The city’s attorney, James Melone of Struthers, said last week that the city did not want to turn over the records because they included search warrants that hadn’t been executed.

By the time the city gave Hardin the records, that was no longer the case, he said.

Hartman said last week that it didn’t matter whether the warrants had been executed. “Once a document is filed with a clerk of courts, it’s public,” he said.

On June 17, the court ordered the city to pay $4,315 of Hardin’s fees and costs, plus the $1,000 in damages.

Hartman said the court never explained why it settled on that amount in its order.

Eight weeks elapsed, Hartman said, and he couldn’t get an answer from Struthers officials on when his client would be paid in response to the court order.

He filed a motion on behalf of Hardin on Aug. 12, asking the court to direct Struthers to prove why it shouldn’t be held in contempt for not following the order.

The motion also asks again for all legal fees and costs, including new ones incurred in the latest filing.

In the motion, Hartman writes that he repeatedly asked the city when the payment would be made.

He said he talked with Melone on July 6, but Melone’s attitude was “we’ve submitted it, and you’ll get it when you get it.”

“When you’re dealing with a municipality, it takes time to process,” Melone said last week.

Hardin was paid Aug. 18, he said.

In a document filed with the court Aug. 26, Melone indicates to the court that the order has been satisfied.

In a letter to Hartman on file with the document, Melone says: “I find your descriptions of my responses to your inquiries to be insulting and an absolute mischaracterization of our discussions.”

Hartman said last week that the payment makes part of the Aug. 12 motion moot, but unless his client directs otherwise, he will keep the motion before the court to recover fees and costs “as a remedy for the delay.”