LOGAN – A Logan County man has sued the Logan County Development Authority for failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Christopher Trent of Man filed his complaint last month in Logan Circuit Court. On October 27, he filed a motion for entry of default judgment after the authority failed to answer the complaint.
According to the complaint, the Logan County Development Authority is a component of the Logan County Commission. According to a letter from state Auditor J.B. McCuskey with the 2019 and 2020 Audit Reports for Logan County, financial information regarding the LCDA isn’t included in the reports.
Trent says multiple people have submitted FOIA requests for that financial information, but he says the LCDA has not responded to any of the requests. He says he submitted a request himself in August and also posted it on his social media. The LCDA didn’t respond within five working days, so he submitted the request a second time on September 4.
LCDA Executive Director Roscoe Adkins acknowledged receipt of that FOIA, but said the request was overly broad and asked for reasonable specificity. Trent says he responded asking for the same information again, but he says the LCDA has not responded to that rquest.
“The budgetary information for the LCDA is not available through any avenue available to the plaintiff,” the complaint says. “The citizenry of Logan County deserves and is entitled to know where all government bodies expend their hard-earned tax dollars.
“To that end, plaintiff believes that the release of this information is in the public interest and should be furnished to the plaintiff and the public at no cost, minus reasonable fees for copies.”
Trent says bank statements, a list of properties owned by the LCDA, rental rates, meeting minutes and agendas should be commonly held records. And he says he does not believe his request is overly broad.
He wants the court to order the LCDA to produce the requested documentation and to enjoin the authority from withholding public records. He also seeks court costs and other relief.
Trent is representing himself. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Kelly Codispoti.
Logan Circuit Court case number 22-C-116
