Record · Agency policy
Port Authority of Allen County — Public Records Availability + Retention & Destruction Policy
paac-records-policy
provenance
- source_path data/documents/aedg/PRR-01-bundle.ocr.pdf
- bundle Allen County -- Responsive Records -- Parent PRR.pdf (producing body: Port Authority of Allen County)
- pages index pp.80-90 (= bundle 0-based 79-89): Availability Policy p.80; Retention/Destruction Policy pp.81-82; Schedule pp.83-90
- content_verified 2026-06-07
- evidence scan (PAAC public-records production)
availability_policy
- adopted 2022-07-28
- accepted_by
- name Cynthia Leis
- title Executive Director, Port Authority of Allen County
- signature_date 2022-07-28
- record_definition R.C. 149.011(G) — fixed medium + under jurisdiction of a public office + documents office activities.
- copy_cost $0.27 per sheet
- broad_request_denial Reserves the right to deny a request that "broadly asks a public office to search for records containing selected information" (e.g. "any and all records containing any reference whatsoever"); a request must be "specific" and particularly describe what is sought; no duty to create a non-existent record. (R.C. 149.43(A)(1)(v) cited)
- non_records_listed
- attorney-client privileged information
- taxpayer records (Ohio Dept. of Taxation / municipal corporations)
- federal tax returns / IRS return information
retention_policy
- adopted 2022-07-28
- statutes
- R.C. 149.011
- R.C. 149.43(A)(1)
- R.C. 149.351 (no unauthorized destruction)
- R.C. 149.381 (schedule approval / Ohio History Connection)
- R.C. 149.412 (records commission)
- R.C. 149.40 (creation only as necessary)
- econ_dev_trade_secret_carveout
- statute R.C. 4582.58
- text "Financial and proprietary information, including trade secrets, submitted to the Authority (or a nonprofit corporation engaged by the Authority to provide economic development services) by or on behalf of an employer in connection with the relocation, location, expansion, improvement, or preservation of the business of that employer is not a public record subject to ORC 149.43. Any other information submitted by such an employer under those circumstances is not a public record subject to ORC 149.43 until that employer commits in writing to proceed with the relocation, location, expansion, improvement, or preservation."
- significance A statutory non-record shield for developer-submitted financial/proprietary/trade-secret info, AND for "any other information" the employer submits — withheld until the employer commits in writing to proceed. The parenthetical "nonprofit corporation engaged by the Authority to provide economic development services" is AEDG: information routed through AEDG (the entity that served the CRA notices and whose President is also the Authority's Executive Director) falls inside the shield. This is the front-end counterpart to the back-end NDA §6 / RDA §9.13 / CRA §22 records-withholding mechanisms: keep the developer's submissions out of "records" status to begin with.
- legal_hold "In the event of a lawsuit or threatened lawsuit a legal hold will be announced by legal counsel for the Board identifying relevant records. Records subject to a legal hold shall be retained until the legal hold has been removed." (relevant to spoliation given the BOSC mandamus posture)
- records_commission Chairperson, fiscal officer of the Board, and legal representative (R.C. 149.412), absent an agreement delegating to the Allen County records commission.
schedule_highlights
- public_records_requests 2 years
- contracts 8 years after termination (incl. economic-development contracts) -- covers the RDA + CRA
- grant_files as required by grant; if unspecified, 5 years after audit + resolution of any litigation/claims/audit findings
- correspondence Substantive messages retained per content; messages "of transitory importance or of no substantive content shall be deleted when of no further administrative value" (a discretionary email-deletion gap)
- drafts_transient_records retain until of no further administrative value (discretionary)
- permanent
- Minutes of Meetings
- Resolutions of Board
- Organizational Records
- Real Property Records
- Maps/Plats
- Records Retention Forms (RC-1/2/3)
- financial_records 7 years following audit
- bid_records_successful statute of limitations per R.C. 2305.06, or 8 years after contract expiration
- bid_records_unsuccessful 2 years after award / decision not to award
org_findings
- no_employees
- finding Personnel Records schedule entry: "Having no employees, the Authority has not adopted a policy pertaining to personnel records..." — the Port Authority of Allen County has NO staff of its own.
- implication The Authority must be administered by an external entity. Combined with Cynthia Leis signing the records policy as the Authority's Executive Director while also serving as AEDG President/CEO, the day-to-day operation (incl. records custody for the $14.5M roadwork deal it signed) runs through AEDG. [inference from the no-employees entry + the dual signature]
- no_maritime_plan Plan for Development entry: 'Having no maritime facilities, the Authority has no plan for development pursuant to R.C. 4582.32' (a financing/economic-development port authority, not a port).
key_finding_leis_dual_role
- finding Cynthia "Cindy" Leis appears in TWO capacities in this corpus: (1) President/CEO of the Allen Economic Development Group (AEDG) -- who drafted/served the CRA school-district notices (school-district-notice-letters.notice.yaml, leisc@aedg.org); and (2) Executive Director of the Port Authority of Allen County -- who signed this public-records policy (2022-07-28) and whose Authority signed the $14.5M Roadwork Development Agreement.
- significance The same person leads the economic-development nonprofit that receives developer submissions shielded under R.C. 4582.58 AND directs the public body that (a) is the producing custodian of this PRR bundle, (b) entered the $14.5M roadwork deal with Bistrozzi, and (c) bound itself to the >=5-business-day developer-notice records clause (RDA §9.13). A single locus of control spanning the shield (AEDG-as-recipient) and the custodian (PAAC-as-producer) -- directly material to the "who is driving the deal and the withholding" map. [verified: both signatures/roles appear in the corpus; the conflict characterization is inference]
Where it connects
aedg/paac-records-policy.policy.yaml · — · aedg