Housing Authority South Bend violates public access records Indiana law

SOUTH BEND — The Housing Authority of South Bend plans to tweak its insurance policies governing entry to public data after Indiana’s public entry counselor discovered the company violated state regulation when it overcharged somebody who sought routine paperwork.

Jackie Stevenson, president of a Mishawaka property administration agency that contracts with the housing authority, filed a proper grievance to the state workplace in April. She wrote that she felt “beneath duress” when she agreed to pay $250 for housing authority board members’ e-mail addresses, a number of month-to-month board stories and 5 years’ price of particulars for funds made to her firm. The general public housing supplier mentioned it might cost her an extra $50 if the request took over 5 hours to finish.

Public Entry Counselor Luke Britt responded with an advisory opinion Might 26, writing that these data, if already digital, ought to have been offered by way of e-mail freed from cost, based on Indiana’s Entry to Public Data Act. Furthermore, the housing authority might have charged $250 provided that it had copied 2,500 paperwork to ship to Stevenson — 10 cents a web page.

“The manufacturing of paperwork doesn’t seem that voluminous,” Britt wrote in his opinion. “Inasmuch, the HASB vastly exceeded its statutory authority in charging this payment.”

Housing Authority of South Bend Government Director Catherine Lamberg directed the Tribune to the company’s lawyer for remark in regards to the violation.

Lawyer Jewell Harris, a associate at Harris Legislation Agency in Lake County, mentioned the company “respects the opinion of the general public entry counselor” and “will be certain that this does not occur sooner or later.”

Any further, Harris mentioned, all public data requests made to the housing authority might be reviewed by authorized counsel. On this case, that did not occur.

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Entry to public data in Indiana

In defining the Entry to Public Data Act’s perform, Britt quotes state regulation: “offering individuals with data is a necessary perform of a consultant authorities and an integral a part of the routine duties of public officers and workers, whose obligation it’s to offer the knowledge.”

In a written response to the grievance despatched to Britt earlier than his ruling, administrator Pamela Rogers recounts how the $250 payment was agreed on throughout two conferences with Lamberg and Lori Wallace, director of the Housing Alternative Voucher Program. The paperwork have been requested March 11 and delivered March 30.

“On this occasion, that request that was made was interpreted by the secretary as an enhanced public data request,” Harris mentioned of Rogers, the administrator. “And beneath Indiana code you’ll be able to cost administrative charges for an enhanced public data request.

“Nonetheless, based mostly upon the general public entry counselor’s opinion, this was a normal public data request,” he acknowledged Thursday.

The group will refund most if not all the $250 to Stevenson, Harris mentioned. Her request yielded 690 pages, he mentioned, practically all of which have been possible digitized previous to Stevenson’s inquiry.

Any member of the general public has the suitable to know what their elected officers are doing, mentioned Amelia McClure, Hoosier State Press Affiliation president. She expressed confusion at how a seemingly easy retrieval of data and a simple payment schedule resulted in a $250 cost.

“We’re all the time happy when the regulation comes down on the facet of freer entry to public data,” McClure mentioned.

In the meantime, paperwork despatched to the PAC present the company and Stevenson’s agency, Alternative Property Administration, are mired in a dispute over federal help funds that the housing authority administers on behalf of tenants. The voucher program is also called Part 8.

The housing authority claims Stevenson overcharged a tenant by $50 a month, or $3,000 whole, by an improper lease settlement made exterior of the voucher program. The organ will now not work along with her, Harris mentioned.

Stevenson, who responded in an emailed assertion to The Tribune, complained of poor communication from the housing authority since 2016 and stagnant federal help funds which have been outpaced by regular will increase in the market worth of her rental models. She attributed any overpayment to confusion between her firm and the housing authority, not sick intent.

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Having develop into government director in Jan. 2021, Lamberg goals to show round an company with deteriorating housing inventory that receives among the many lowest inspection scores in Indiana. Earlier this yr, the authority introduced plans to tear down two long-troubled websites and construct new models.

The housing authority’s former director, together with 5 different housing authority workers and contractors, have been charged with a number of counts of financial institution fraud and theft in 2021. The indictments come after the FBI in July 2019 raided the housing authority’s workplaces and a house on town’s south facet owned by the company. 

E-mail South Bend Tribune metropolis reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Comply with him on Twitter: @jordantsmith09