Open Meetings ‘Bounty Hunter’ Takes Aim at Berkshire Schools

February 7, 2024 by John Karlovec

A self-proclaimed “bounty hunter” for open meetings violators has accused Berkshire Schools Board of Education of skirting Ohio’s Open Meetings Act when it comes to executive sessions.

Brian M. Ames, of Mogadore, filed a lawsuit in the Geauga County Court of Common Pleas on Dec. 27, 2023. He claims board members failed to follow the law when holding and conducting executive sessions.

Berkshire has until March 4 to respond to the complaint. The Cleveland law firm Weston Hurd LLP is representing the district. It did not respond to an email requesting comment as of Tuesday afternoon.

However, Berkshire Schools Superintendent John Stoddard said in an email the district does not comment on pending litigation.

The Open Meetings Act requires public bodies in Ohio to take official action and conduct all deliberations upon official business only in open meetings where the public may attend and observe. Public bodies also must take full and accurate minutes of all meetings and make these meeting minutes available to the public — except in the case of permissible executive sessions.

Executive sessions are closed-door sessions convened by public bodies, after a roll call vote, and attended by only the members of the public body and persons they invite.

Public bodies may hold an executive session only for a few specific purposes, which must be identified to the public. Also, no vote or other decisions on the matter(s) discussed may take place during the executive session.

Ames submitted a public records request to Berkshire Schools Treasurer Beth McCaffrey, who produced minutes of organizational and regular meetings, including eight meetings from Jan. 10, 2022, through July 11, 2022, according to his complaint.

In the first count of the lawsuit, Ames said the minutes showed board members held executive sessions in five of the regular meetings, but failed to identify the specific purpose for which the session was held.

Although the oral motions to adjourn into executive session gave permissible topics to discuss in executive session — such as personnel matters and the purchase of property — those reasons were not reflected in the written meeting minutes, according to the lawsuit.

In the second count, Ames alleges eight of the meeting minutes fail to reflect board member discussions and actions. In fact, he said those minutes do not even reflect the time the meeting was called to order. As such, the minutes are not full and accurate, and, therefore, violate state law.

Ames is asking Judge David Ondrey to order the district to pay him a $500 civil forfeiture for each violation in addition to prohibiting board members from holding executive sessions without identifying in the motion the permissible purpose, and compelling board members to prepare, file and maintain full and accurate minutes of each meeting.

Ames and The Advocate

Ames is president of Open Government Advocates, also known as The Advocate, a name he said he trademarked.

The Advocate is a nonprofit organization based in Mogadore that works for transparency in government, to compel public bodies to clean up their act and follow the law. The Advocate and Ames have filed similar lawsuits against multiple school districts in Ohio. Targets also included boards of trustees and boards of commissioners.

In 2022, Ames sued Bainbridge Township Trustees, alleging they failed to follow the law when adjourning into more than 30 executive sessions in 2020 and 2021 to discuss an economic development project.

Trustees settled the lawsuit in January 2023, agreeing to pay Ames $500 as a civil forfeiture and attorney’s fees in the amount of $5,492.75.

Also in 2022, Ames filed a lawsuit against the Geauga County Investment Advisory Committee, claiming it failed to create a rule for public notice and failed to actually provide public notice. The court found in favor of the investment advisory committee and dismissed Ames’ complaint.

He sued the Geauga County Republican Central Committee and Chair Nancy McArthur in 2022, alleging they convened a meeting at which elections were held by secret ballot and not in a manner accessible to the public. The court dismissed Ames’ complaint, holding “merely because the committee was conducting an organizational meeting pursuant to statute, the committee was not thereby conducting a sovereign governmental function as might require the committee to comply with certain statutory obligations … .”

Troy Township Trustees were accused of violating the law in 2022 as well. According to court records, trustees admitted on more than a dozen occasions they entered into executive sessions without stating an approved matter or purpose for going behind closed doors and the minutes of each of those meetings did not reflect any permitted purpose and, therefore, were not full and accurate. The township paid Ames a $1,000 civil-forfeiture penalty as to all offenses. Trustees also were enjoined from continuing to violate the law.

Then in January 2023, Ames sued the Geauga County Board of Developmental Disabilities, alleging it failed to conduct executive sessions properly, including failing to have an attorney present in an executive session about imminent litigation.

The court sided with Ames, awarding him a $500 civil forfeiture and ordering the board to pay court costs.

The same day Ames sued Berkshire, OGA sued Whitehall City Schools Board of Education in Franklin County, alleging board members “failed to establish a reasonable method” by which the public may be notified of when and where the board’s special meetings were taking place.

It also claims the board did not follow the law or its own policies when taking their special meeting minutes, claiming the meeting minutes did not contain “sufficient facts and information to permit the public to understand and appreciate the rationale behind the board’s decisions.”

On Feb. 1, OGA sued the Jackson-Milton Local School District in Mahoning County for allegedly failing to properly notify the public about its school board meetings or to keep full and accurate meeting minutes.

The lawsuit also alleges the school board doesn’t follow the proper procedure before starting an executive session and improperly uses consent agendas.

Last month, OGA sued Tipp City Exempted Village Schools Board of Education in Miami County, accusing board members of failing to inform the public of the purpose of their special meetings and claiming the board “rarely” posts special meeting notices on its website.

Ames denies his tactic is a money-making scheme or about partisan politics; he said he just wants public bodies “to follow the law” and if anyone thinks it’s about the money, they are welcome to “join in and make their money, too.”

“The reason I am doing it is because people’s right to know what their government is doing is being violated,” he said. “Before I started doing anything about it, nobody was doing anything.”

Ames said he has filed more than 40 lawsuits since he began policing Ohio’s Open Meeting Act. Whether he brings the action or The Advocate, or an Akron-based law firm that does some of his work, is based on workload.

He added in the past two years, virtually all of his cases have settled.

A case against Brimfield Township in Portage County resulted in a changed system, whereby trustees are now specific about why they hold an executive session.

Ames said township officials thanked him because after they complied with the law, the people began to trust officials, making it easier for them to pass levies.

Ames also said he has a case pending against West Geauga Schools Board of Education in the 11th District Court of Appeals over the district’s alleged failure to produce public records.

Ames is running as a Republican in three races in Portage County’s March 19 primary: Portage County Clerk of Courts; State Central Committee, Man Republican – 27th District; and Member of County Central Committee – Republican – Randolph A.