Council members upset with lack of jail information

LANCASTER – While the county moves closer to beginning construction in August on a new safety complex, a new rift between council members opposed to the construction and the administration has broken out over public records.

After the last council meeting and after the Eagle-Gazette reported the city’s engineering department had received building plans and requests for building permits, Council members Randy Groff and Robert Hedges complained in emails obtained by the Eagle-Gazette that they had been kept out of the loop.

Hedges, R-at large, through a public records request asked for copies of items, including the building plans, dealing with the jail site.

“Since pledges of providing information have not been honored and follow-up requests for information acknowledged to be in the possession of the city has not produced any action, I am left with little recourse other than to make a public records request,” Hedges wrote.

Mayor Dave Smith declined to comment and referred questions to Lancaster’s Law Director/City Prosecutor Randall Ullom. Ullom could not be reached on Wednesday for comment.

However, Ullom responded to Hedges in an email on behalf of the administration saying PDF versions were not available and there were approximately 2,000 or more pages of documents associated with the request, including 195 blueprint building plans. He wrote to Hedges saying the documents were available to the public for viewing at the city engineer’s office. He also wrote Hedges that due to the cost of reproduction, including the blueprints, it would require an advance payment of the estimated cost, $1,085, to get full copies.

He suggested Hedges could come in and inspect the plans and documents and decide which ones he might want reproduced to reduce the cost.

Councilwoman Becky Tener, R-6th Ward, said she was upset that information about the plans being received by the city’s engineering department had not been forwarded to council members.

“In April we were told they would forward the information when they got it,” Tener said. “I’m upset that we weren’t informed.”

Groff, R-3rd Ward, expressed his frustration with not being informed about the permit application being received in an email.

“While not unexpected, there is a total lack of consistency, conformity with practices, and transparency within our city administration,” Groff wrote.

Councilman Mike Fracassa, R-2nd Ward, has also weighed in expressing his dissatisfaction.

“I am very disappointed with the lack of transparency on this project. We were promised much better than this on this project, specifically that council would be notified as plans were received, and before any approvals were given. This lack of transparency is not what taxpayers expect,” Fracassa wrote in an email on Tuesday. “Council should not have to pay a dime to get all of the documents, and I am still puzzled as to how this architect has not provided an electronic copy of the plans. I have never run across a company without this ability in my dealings with architects and I have worked on several projects.”

Fracassa said the issue underscores the distrust some feel over the project.

“There may or may not be an issue with the jail effecting the water supply of the city, but the actions over the last several weeks have demonstrated why there is a lack of trust on this issue,” Fracassa wrote. “The first step to change this is to get the documents to city council and after that updates need to be provided with any new steps or decisions made on this project.”

In 2013, the county chose a site on Wheeling Street, where the minimum-security jail now sits, for a new $35 million maximum-security jail and safety center that would include space for the Fairfield County Sheriff’s office.

Opponents of the Wheeling Street site have said building a new jail at the site of the current one would create the wrong impression to visitors coming to Lancaster historic downtown. Others, including Hedges and Groff, have argued that construction could damage the city’s water supply by forcing hazardous material from previous businesses on the site into the aquifer below, which the county denies.

County Administrator Carri Brown said on Tuesday during the county commissioner’s meeting, that the safety complex project is moving toward the planned August groundbreaking.

cburnett@lancastereaglegazette.com

740-681-4346

Twitter: @CarlBurnettJr