County legal counsel outlines public-records procedures and offers department training

Starke County’s legal counsel provided a step-by-step overview of state public-records law and offered to host department training to reduce confusion about request handling.

Justin, who represents the county, told commissioners that Indiana’s access-to-public-records statute (cited in the meeting as 5-14-3) requires public agencies to provide a reasonable timeline for fulfilling requests within seven days of receiving email or faxed requests, not necessarily to deliver documents within seven days. He explained common misunderstandings: "people think I sent an email 7 days I need a copy of that. That's not exactly what it says" and walked through exemptions, including attorney-client correspondence, and the right to appeal denials to Circuit Court.

He recommended best practices for phone-originated requests: record the requester’s information on a standard form, read the request back to confirm details, and date-stamp the form to establish when the request was received. Commissioners and staff agreed that centralizing many requests through the auditor’s office would help ensure consistent handling and that the auditor already processes a large share of routine requests.

Justin offered to lead 15–30 minute Zoom sessions for department heads to review forms and procedures and proposed holding multiple sessions to fit schedules. Commissioners asked him to coordinate with staff to schedule those sessions and to provide a short procedural checklist for front-desk staff.

Next steps: legal counsel to set up one or more Zoom training sessions for department heads, share a best-practices form or checklist, and work with the auditor to centralize routine request processing where feasible.