Published: February 15, 2008 01:45 am      

Judge orders Rivesville officials to provide records

FAIRMONT — A conflict between the Rivesville council and former recorder and town resident John Harless has escalated to circuit court.

Judge David R. Janes heard both sides of the case Thursday, which dealt with several Freedom of Information Act requests filed by Harless concerning Rivesville records. The requests were made for various financial documents, such as the town’s check registry. Harless also sent requests for profit-and-loss financial statements for each of the town’s departments.

Harless had received copies of the check registry. However, the names of the people the checks were made out to had been blacked out. The memo section of the checks had also been blacked out because they had Social Security numbers written on them, according to DeAndra Burton, Rivesville town attorney.

Janes ruled in favor of Harless, ordering the town officials to provide the records to the Rivesville resident. The judge informed the council members who were present at the hearing to provide Harless with copies of the town’s check registry among the numerous other records that were requested.

“This information that Mr. Harless has requested, as painful as it is, is public information,” Janes said after his ruling.

“You can redact (black out) the Social Security numbers, but not the names on the checks,” Janes said.

Janes also ruled that the council members could not charge more than 25 cents per page for copies of the documents provided to Harless. Rivesville officials recently passed an ordinance requiring that a fee of 75 cents per page for copies would be levied for all information requested from the town records.

“I think that today, 25 cents is a reasonable fee,” Janes said.

Rivesville officials are also required to reimburse Harless for court costs, Janes said. Harless did not hire a lawyer and instead represented himself at the proceedings so council does not have to reimburse him for attorney fees. Janes added that the court costs will probably cost the town approximately $205.

“I think the hearing went well,” said Harless following the proceedings. “And I am satisfied with what I received.”

Tammie Crites, Rivesville mayor, said that she did not disagree with the ruling. However, she added that she did not believe the FOIA requests from Harless would stop now that the case has been decided.

“I think that we’ll continue to be barraged with FOIA requests by Mr. Harless to no constructive purpose,” Crites said.

Crites, along with Burton, added that they had believed at the time that they were protecting the privacy of town employees when they redacted the names from the copy of the check registry provided to Harless. The two insisted that they did not intentionally try to hide financial information from him.

Harless had originally filed suit against both Crites and Barb Beatty, town recorder, in both their official capacity as well as personally. Janes had dismissed the suit against the two in their personal capacity.

E-mail Paul Fallon at pfallon@timeswv.com.