CLEVELAND- Today, the ACLU of Ohio announced that it would send an open records request to the city of Cleveland, asking for resumes submitted by candidates for the director of Port Control, who oversees Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Following a request from the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, the city replied that it no longer had the resumes.
Gary Daniels, ACLU of Ohio Litigation Coordinator, said, “The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled in the past that resumes submitted by candidates for government jobs are open records and should be provided to the public. The city of Cleveland has an obligation to provide these documents so they may be viewed for public discourse.”
Daniels went on, “The public is best served by an open government and the city should be making every available effort to provide these documents.” The letter requesting that the city provide the documents was sent to Mayor Frank Jackson and City Law Director Robert Triozzi. The ACLU of Ohio further stipulated that if the records are not in the possession of the city, they should provide an explanation for this and a list of all steps they are taking to recover the documents. The whereabouts of the resumes are currently not known.
After the initial request, representatives from the city replied that the resumes were sent back to the search firm and they resumes were either destroyed or handed back to the candidates. The city later said that the resumes had not been destroyed, but they did not have them in their possession.
The Cleveland Plain-Dealer previously sued the city of Cleveland in 1996 when the city kept resumes secret that were submitted for the police chief position. The Ohio Supreme Court later ruled that such resumes were public documents and that they should be kept on file.
Daniels added, “One of the cornerstones of our society is the ability for the public to have access to records. A transparent government allows for increased public awareness of important issues and functions within the government, a higher level of efficiency and accountability in projects and a deeper sense of trust between leadership and the community. It is in everyone’s best interests to keep records open.”
Update: The resumes were made public later in April.
