Salineville Council votes to provide cemetery records

SALINEVILLE - The battle continued Monday night over the Woodland Cemetery Board's efforts to get financial information from the village fiscal officer, with the majority of Village Council ultimately voting to give the board what it wants.

Board member Gene Polen addressed council saying he "still has a problem" with the information provided by Fiscal Officer Robert Roach during a finance committee meeting last week.

"We still need the bank statement," Polen insisted, saying the board's clerk could then tell who has been paid without having to go through the reams of paperwork Roach gave them.

Roach said he provided a payroll report that had names on it, but Councilman Linda Beadnell interjected, saying, "What's the issue of giving him those bank statements? Why can't they have it?"

Roach said many of the documents the board requested members "don't understand or aren't using properly," saying when the cemetery clerk was getting the bank statement in the past, she "didn't use it properly."

Finance Chairman Rick Beadle persisted that the cemetery board wants to physically see the bank statement from the bank and not something generated by the fiscal officer.

"That's all they're asking. Give them the (expletive) thing," Beadle ordered.

Roach said when the newly reappointed cemetery clerk comes to his office to complete her employee paperwork, "It's my hope, after I train her, she won't need these."

Roach said he couldn't be "tied up on a daily basis with four different people asking for copies, four copies of the same thing."

When Beadnell mentioned there being a communication breakdown between him and cemetery Clerk Rhonda Johnson, Roach said, "That's why I recommended this particular candidate not be hired," and said it is his belief cemetery officials "don't understand" the records they have been given.

He offered to let Johnson get into his files and make copies of whatever she wants once he "trains her," but cemetery board members balked at that, with one saying, "I don't want her getting into another person's filing cabinet."

Beadnell admonished Roach, "For someone not wanting to give out a bank statement, now you're opening up the filing cabinet."

When Roach reiterated he "can't be bogged down with this," Beadle said, "That's not an excuse for not doing it."

Ohio's open records law specifically prohibits a public office from citing lack of manpower or time as a reason to delay complying with a records request.

Beadle made a motion that he wants that bank statement in the cemetery board's hands "one way or another," with Roach replying, "We've already discussed the avenue how that's gonna take place," referring to his comment about training Johnson and then allowing her to copy items from the files.

But Beadle responded, "(That's) the avenue you say it's gonna happen. I don't care if you hand it to me and I give it to them."

Council voted to direct the fiscal officer to hand over the bank statements, with member Wayne Leishman and Mark Wood opposed, giving no reason.

jgilbert@mojonews.com