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MINUTES OF THE RULES & ORDINANCES COMMITTEE October 7, 2019 East Conference Room Present: Councilmembers George, Litten & Rader Others: Councilmen Anderson and O’Leary; Assistant Director Swallow Call to Order: 5:31 p.m. AGENDA Approve the minutes of the June 17, 2019 Rules & Ordinances Committee th Chairwoman George made a motion to approve the minutes of the June 17, 2019 Rules & Ordinances Committee, which was seconded by Councilman Rader. All members voted in favor. Motion passed. ORDINANCE 16-19-AN ORDINANCE enacting new Chapter 110, Access Public Records, of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Lakewood to create transparency and timely easy-of-access to public records and set requirements for the city’s online public records requestsystem.(Placed on 1st reading and referred to Rules & Ordinances nd Committee 5/20/19; 2reading 6/3/19) Councilman Radershared that Director Butler indicated to him that the Law Department was looking into software to fulfill the requirements in section 110.50c of the lawand that the department was to receive a presentation from NextRequest. Assistant Director Swallow confirmed that NextRequest public records software will be up and running by the end of the year. It will be able to accept external and internal requests, has automated response options, and costs about $5,500 a year. New Orleans, Louisiana has successfully implemented the software. Councilman Rader reviewed some of the components of the ordinance and asked questions regarding the public records administrator position that the law would create. Assistant Director Swallow stated that Jeanine Petrus serves in multiple roles in the Law Department and would be able to incorporate the proposed duties of the ordinance into her position. She has experience filling public records requests for police reports and other documents.Ms. Swallow indicated that she did have some concerns regarding the law and its potential conflict with the Ohio Revised Code. It was highlighted that #3 in section 110.20 requires a great dealof information to be kept concerning real propertywithin themunicipality, which is duplicative of county efforts and onerous on the administration. Item #4 in the same section requires salary compilationsand statistical analyses of benefitsto be created and members of the administration were unsure if such documents existed and could only be created unless a salary survey was conducted. It was also argued that item #5 creates an undue burden on the administration to create feasibility, management, and cost effectiveness reports. Councilman Rader and Ms. Swallow agreed to work together to clear up the proposed legislation and focus it on his intent for people to have easy access to government documents. Ms. Swallow added that the Plain Dealer runs yearly records