It will be good to say, 'Bye-bye Dave Yost'
Inaugural WOAT Worst Of All Time public records abuser is finished. Yay!
SANDUSKY — Five years ago the Ohio Attorney General waxed poetic when he claimed he was for open government.
“Secrecy in any relationship destroys trust—a friendship, a marriage or a business partnership. Transparency builds trust,” AG Dave Yost said. “More now than ever, we in government need to build trust with those we serve. It starts with openness in public decision-making and the records that document it.”
We call B.S
In the last year in his last term, Yost has an unbroken record of avoiding the hard questions, ducking out of difficult circumstances and simply not caring enough to give a damn. He’s never taken, let alone answered, any legitimate questions of public concern, from why he prosecuted a woman for allegedly lying about being raped (Yost was wrong on all counts) to refusing to prosecute a (now deceased) serial rapist millionaire businessman from Put-in-Bay. The failed AG also refused to prosecute an island cop who three different women accused of drugging and raping them.
AG Yost protects the people.
Some of the people.
Yost won’t ever acknowledge his own penchant for secrecy and the secrecy he tolerates and promotes in the law enforcement community that harms families. Last month, this is what Yost’s legal department said about transparency when asked why Huron County Sheriff Todd Corbin refused to investigate the murder of Amanda Dean for 5½ years.
“Confidential Law Enforcement Investigatory Records (CLEIRs), pursuant to R.C. 149.43(A)(2)(a); State ex rel. Caster v. Columbus, 2016-Ohio-8394, ¶ 47.”
It’s called the CLIERs exemption to the state’s Public Records Act. It’s a widely abused exemption, and using it, the way Yost is doing, violates the spirit and intent of the state law, the very heart of transparency, the very soul of 149.43. Yost deserves to be run out of office for holding the deadly weapon, for wielding the knife that is cutting away the safety net public records provide. It’s a deliberate act.
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📣 For information about Ohio’s Public Records Act go to ORC 149.43 Ohio’s Public Records Act.
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