Court gets secret records

MILAN — State auditor Keith Faber continues to fight efforts to get a full accounting of misspent Milan village money discovered during an audit of village finances. State auditor Keith Faber stops by the Register for a segment of "Between the Lines" on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019. Register photo/ERIN CALDWELL But on Friday, an attorney from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's office filed a sealed court motion, on behalf of Faber, that includes emails staff members exchanged that allegedly explain how misspent funds were reconciled. Faber's office has been accused of "fudging the numbers," hiding the actual totals for how much money was misspent. An audit report for the period 2020-21 was released in April. It lists about $850 in unlawful payroll payments made to village employees. But email exchanges among auditor staff members suggest as much as $20,000 or more may have been misspent, according to Mary Bruno, a village resident. Village finances for the 2022-23 period are currently under review by the auditor's office, and Bruno wants to make sure residents get a full picture of how much money was misspent during the entire four-year period. She filed a lawsuit in the Ohio Court of Claims in August after Faber refused to release the complete email exchanges. The court filing on Friday comes in response to a court order for a private review of the emails before a ruling on whether the auditor has a right to keep the explanations secret. A magistrate is expected to privately review the records and determine if parts or all of them should be released. It's unknown when a decision on that will be made. But Faber, in the meantime, might be hoping to get the court case dismissed on a technicality before a ruling. The attorney who filed the court motion also filed an affidavit with the court that questions whether Bruno has standing to ask for the records. The records requests were made through an email account that does not bear Bruno's name, the affidavit states, suggesting that it wasn't Bruno who asked for the records. In July, The Register made a public records request asking the auditor's office for the same records — the full email exchanges related to the audit — being withheld citing attorney-client privilege. The newspaper also requested that, if those records are not provided, a list with titles and descriptions for each record be provided, which state law allows.