Court order issued to Alexandria over unreleased public records
A Madison County court has found that an Alexandria official hasn’t been responding to a citizen’s many requests for public records access in a timely manner. IPR’s Thomas Ouellette reports.
James Peters had submitted dozens of records requests through the Indiana Access to Public Records Act (APRA) to the city of Alexandria, specifically to records kept by Clerk-Treasurer Darcy VanErman. After not receiving multiple of those documents for months, he took the city to court to fulfill those requests.
This week, a Madison County court order agrees with Peters’ claims and says the law requires VanErman to deliver the records or state the reason why she can’t within a reasonable amount of time.
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In court documents, VanErman said she never actually denied any of Peters’ records requests because she has an intent to comply with the law’s guidelines. The court’s order says intent without actually providing access to the records still violates the law.
The order, filed Tuesday, gives VanErman 14 days to find all outstanding requests for documents and up to 21 days to either release those records or explain why some are exempt from the law.
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The court found both Alexandria Mayor Todd Naselroad and the city of Alexandria were found to be working in compliance with APRA guidelines and did not directly deny records requests from Peters.
Thomas Ouellette is our reporter and producer. Contact him at thomas.ouellette@bsu.edu
