The City of Washington Court House has hired a high-powered Columbus law firm to handle all public records request.
The announcement was made via email on Friday by the city’s law director’s office.
“Effective immediately, all public records request will be sent to Bricker & Eckler for disposition,” announced Cheryl Faulkner, the assistant for the law director. Bricker and Eckler is a law firm in Columbus that specializes in representing local governments.
The announcement comes in response to a public records request by the Guardian seeking paperwork involving a secret settlement by the city. In the documents requested by the Guardian, the news publication seeks information about a sizable financial settlement made with a former city employee. It has been alleged by the former city employee that her direct supervisor, Tom Riley — the city’s finance director — subjected her to severe harassment and mental anguish, which resulted being admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
The settlement, which was made in 2019, is believed to be more than $200,000 and includes a non-disclosure agreement which bars the former employee from talking about her claims or settlement. Riley is still employed by the city, but the female employee retired.
The records which the Guardian is seeking are a copy of the settlement agreement, a copy of the check, and a copy of the non-disclosure agreement.
As of Friday afternoon, the records request has been pending for three weeks.