Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
The City of Oberon was recently put on notice by the North Dakota Attorney General’s office for “blatantly ignoring” an open records request.
On January 4, 2021, citizen Corey Ploium requested copies of all meeting agendas, minutes and bills from 2020 from the Oberon city auditor. After receiving no response for two months, Ploium followed up by hand-delivering a written request to the auditor on March 8. In the written request, he asked for all agendas, minutes and bills from 2020 through March 8, 2021.
Ploium contacted the attorney general’s office on March 22, and the attorney general’s office contacted the city auditor to inquire about the matter. Tristan Demarce, Oberon’s city auditor at that time, informed the attorney general that he had received Mr. Ploium’s request. He said that he was new to the position and not familiar with the requested records, so he would get the requested records to Mr. Ploium as soon as possible.
However, Demarce still did not comply. On April 29, Ploium requested an attorney general’s opinion, as he hadn’t heard from city officials regarding his request.
According to the attorney general’s opinion issued on November 8, “During several telephone calls between March and June, 2021, various city officials assured this office that they were working on the request, but the city failed to communicate with the requester regarding the status of the request, and did not respond to official written communications from this office regarding the outstanding request.”
In late May, staff at the attorney general’s office spoke with new mayor Robert Santos regarding the request. Santos informed the representative that Mr. Demarce was no longer employed as the city auditor, and that other city officials were working to fulfill Ploium’s request.
However, it wasn’t until nearly six months after the original request, on July 1, 2021, that city officials provided the 2020 minutes and agendas as requested. Yet, as of the date of the opinion, the requested bills from 2020, as well as the meeting agendas and minutes from 2021, had not been provided.
A public entity is obliged to respond to all requests for records within a reasonable time, either to provide the records or explain why the records are not being provided. In this case, the city officials not only failed to provide the requested records within a reasonable amount of time, but also failed to communicate with the requester.
“The city blatantly ignored its obligations and violated the open records law,” N.D. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem wrote in his opinion. “A delay may be appropriate for a number of reasons...However, although certain circumstances may justify a brief delay, a public records request cannot be indefinitely ignored.”
The Transcript has been informed that a civil lawsuit against the City of Oberon is pending in this case. If the court finds in favor of Mr. Ploium, additional sanctions will be issued against the city as identified in the attorney general’s opinion and outlined below.
Stenehjem concluded, “Failure to take the corrective measures described in this opinion within seven days of the date this opinion is issued will result in mandatory costs, disbursements, and reasonable attorney fees if the person requesting the opinion prevails in a civil action under N.D.C.C. § 44-04-21.2.15. It may also result in personal liability for the person or persons responsible for the noncompliance.”
