ALERT
Jan 14, 2019 the court informed me this has been delayed thanks to Judge Froelich discovering he had a conflict.
UPDATE
Rescheduled for Mar 5, 2019, 10 am
The Dayton Public Schools had a committee hold an illegal secret meeting to decide what schools to close. I filed a lawsuit to hold them accountable to the Sunshine laws [1]. It got dismissed by Judge Richard Skelton on really stupid grounds: He said I failed to prove they deliberated in a meeting I wasn’t allowed to attend.
The violations were keeping me out of the meetings, refusing to allow me to video or audio record, threats to close meetings, failure to notify properly. The video above- pretty much explains it. The idea that I’m supposed to know what they did in a meeting I wasn’t allowed into is a “Catch 22 [2]” to say the least. If the court of appeals rules for the school board- they are gutting the Ohio Sunshine laws- which are already pretty weak. See ORC 121.22 [3]
If open meetings are important to you- come out and watch, and support me in my quest to protect our rights to keep our eyes and ears on those we elect.
Remember- when you elect someone, you effectively turn over your power to them to represent your interests. They work for us.
It’s already a travesty that the School Board has spent At least $35K defending themselves – to make sure their biggest critic was silenced and excluded.
When: Tuesday, January 15, 2019 at 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Tuesday, March 5, 2019 at 10am
Where: 2nd District Court of Appeals, Dayton, 41 N. Perry Street Downtown Dayton 45402 Judges Froelich, Welbaum, Tucker and ???
Court guidelines: No knives (even tiny ones), no cameras, no recording devices, don’t use your cell phone.
Parking: best option- 5 hour meters on W. Fourth street E. of Perry- or park free along the Dayton Flyer bus route- take it downtown and and then walk from the Schuster stop.
The oral arguments are time limited. This will end by lunch. Most of the time, court is held in empty court rooms. Because this issue is so important, your attendance will send a message.
Thank you for your support!
Good luck to you David. Put Lolli in her place, I think the open meetings are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to her legal problems.
@Rob- welcome to Esrati.com. It’s not just Lolli- it’s everyone in that room that knew better- and especially, Al-Hamdani, Mims and Harris. All three should be removed from office.
I’m planning on attending.
I’d like to go, but not sure if I’m going to be able to. It would be pretty entertaining.
These people that are supposed to have the “public trust” need to learn that these meetings need to be in the open. It doesn’t matter if it’s the school board, township trustees or a village/city council.
I know of one small municipality that seems to skate around the Sunshine Laws on a pretty regular basis. Their actual “meetings” are televised on the local cable access channel, but the real discussions happen in the “work sessions” which aren’t televised. Work sessions are also subject to the same Sunshine Laws, recording of minutes, etc. as a regular meeting. But this municipality will have work sessions that drag on for a couple of hours and the extent of the minutes will be something like “Discussed budget”. Yeah, two words for a two hour meeting!! What a load of crap!!
Go get ’em, David!! Wishing you the best!
@Bubba- it was a “work session” that started the whole thing with the mask many years ago. The more meetings a government body has- the more likely they are to be trying to pull a fast one.
I know it’s asking a lot for people to take time away from work to come down to this- but, the mask case went to appeal- and was the first case heard at the new UD Law school- standing room only- over 300 in attendance.
It’s one of the reasons I’m still willing to fight this fight.
I heard one woman is driving up from Cincinnati to be there in support.
What do you think about the new Sheriff?
Could you send out an email notification when this gets rescheduled?
@Tom McMasters- I’ll post, put an invite up on Facebook, tweet and comment here- so you should get a notification.
[…] You’re invited! The Sunshine Laws Smackdown event. FREE! Tuesday Jan 15, 2019 posted on January 3, 2019 […]
Update- Post has been updated with new court date, Mar 5, 2019, 10am. You’re invited.
If WordPress allows it – lining through the original date followed by the new date would be more effective than your update: Alternatively having the new date in the red block instead of the first alert message would be better than the current display.