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MARC KOVAC: Lawmaker: Secrecy is not a solution

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October 14, 2007

By Marc Kovac

Record-Courier Capital Bureau

COLUMBUS -- A press hat tip to State Rep. Jennifer Garrison, a Democrat from Marietta, who stood up for all of us public records advocates last week during a prolonged floor debate on foster care issues.

At issue was an amendment to a larger bill that would prohibit public scrutiny of foster parent documents unless those individuals lose their licenses or are charged with certain crimes.

"The damage has to be done before we know what's going on," Garrison told her fellow lawmakers in an unsuccessful attempt to quash the move (the amendment passed by a mostly party-line vote of 52-44). "Legislating secrecy in government is not a solution."

House Bill 214 was one of several bills introduced earlier this year in the House and Senate by a group of Republican lawmakers, following the death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel.

The youngster died last year after being bound and left in a closet over a weekend while his foster parents attended an out-of-state family function. It's a terrible, tragic situation that may have been avoided, had the backgrounds of the foster parents involved been adequately scrutinized in advance.

HB 214, co-sponsored by Reps. Jeff Wagner and Courtney Combs, made it through the committee process and hit the House floor last week for a final vote.

It would increase foster family pre-placement requirements to 36 hours from 24, allow caregivers to fulfill a portion of their continuing training through mentoring or teaching classes for others foster parents and establish procedures and requirements for interaction among county and state agencies.

There was very little discussion about those provisions, and even Garrison agreed with the original gist.

"House Bill 214 accomplishes many objectives that will hopefully strengthen the foster care system in Ohio," she said.

The rub came from a floor amendment to exempt from public records requirements documentation related to foster parents, unless those parents have their licenses revoked or are charged with a disqualifying offense. Statistics compiled from foster care records without individual identifiers also would remain open.

"Current common practice is not to release private information about foster parents -- that can't be emphasized enough as we begin this conversation," Wagner said in offering the amendment. "Currently, you cannot receive that information form the Ohio Department of Job an Family Services or any county agency."

That particular issue is still up for debate. A newspaper's attempt to obtain Cincinnati area foster records is pending before the Ohio Supreme Court, Garrison said.

Wagner said the exemption is needed to protect foster children and the homes in which they are placed and to provide the privacy needed to secure a steady pool of foster families.

Wagner said opening foster parents' identifying information to public scrutiny would have a "chilling effect" on recruitment and retention. "Every county I know of is crying for more foster homes. We do not need to chase good people away."

But Garrison said the public records issue should be hashed out through the normal legislative process and subject to additional committee hearings and debate. "Our foster children need the protection of transparency in government."

Garrison said compromise language worked out with the state newspaper association would have kept foster parent addresses shielded, but opened individuals' names, birth dates and counties of residence to public review. The dates they were certified as foster parents, the gender of any children removed and the reasons for removal also would be part of the public record.

With that information in hand, newspapers could conduct background investigations, Garrison said.

"They may find information a contract agency did not, and the life saved could be another child's," she said, adding later, "I don't want bad foster parents hiding behind a law that makes it impossible for the public to obtain public records."

She added, "If (it) was not the policy to exempt (this information) already, you have to wonder if the Marcus Fiesels would still be here. ... Allow the scrutiny that the press can bring so that we have fewer children that are put at risk by foster parents who fall through the cracks -- who none of us want as foster parents."

The final amended bill passed by a vote of 87-9; Garrison was among those opposed.

Marc Kovac is the Dix Newspapers Capital Bureau chief.

E-mail him at mkovac@dixcom.com.




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