Unlisted: Why can't we get 'director of open government's' contact info from AG?

It’s our 3rd request for a phone number. For people tasked with transparency, they seem remarkably hard to find

Jan 08, 2026

COLUMBUS — There is a special kind of irony currently unfolding in the halls of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.

We have spent the last week battling for the release of court records that Dave Yost’s office effectively “un-published” after they were aired in open court. Leading that charge for the state are two people: Brian Malachowski, the Director of Open Government, and MacKenzie S. Clayton, a Public Records Specialist.

You would think the “Director of Open Government” would be the most accessible person in Columbus. Instead, he has become a ghost.

Today, Stay Tuned Sandusky sent its third formal request to Yost’s press secretary, Steven Irwin, just to get a business phone number for these officials. When the people in charge of “transparency” refuse to even share their email addresses with the press, it tells you everything you need to know about the current state of the “Sunshine Laws” in Ohio.

They are using H.B. 96 to hide the evidence. They are using the “Soup Nazi” approach to deny the public its right to know. And now, they won’t even pick up the phone.

We aren’t just asking for records anymore. We are asking why the “Open Government” office is operating behind a closed door.

Phone call that never happened?

The culture of secrecy isn’t new; it’s just moving from the county level to the state level.

In July 2017, on the very day Amanda Dean’s family reported her missing and told him they feared Fred had killed her, Sheriff Todd Corbin said he talked to the director of a women’s shelter who assured him Amanda was alive and safe. But Amanda was already dead, according to prosecutors.

It’s now been a secret for nearly a decade: Who made that call to the sheriff? * Why was the call made?

Why would someone tell the sheriff she was safe when she was already dead?

Either investigators sought answers to those questions or they are seeking to hide the answers. There’s no in-betweens, no having it both ways. It’s one, or the other. There is no plausible excuse for Yost, for Kasaris, for Irwin, or for anyone else to continue hiding the truth from the public. The damage done to date is already devastating because of it. Just ask Joseph Phillips’ (RIP) family about that.