City Of Lakewood Receives State's Top Transparency Designation

LAKEWOOD, OH — The City of Lakewood has received the highest rating of designation for transparency as recognized by the State of Ohio’s Auditor, city officials announced on Wednesday

Ohio Auditor Keith Fabor recognized the city with a four-star rating in the state’s Stars Rating system, which evaluates local municipalities in seven areas of transparency, including the way it tracks public information requests and provides other information to the public. The four-star rating is the highest the auditor awards in determining how transparent city governments are across the state.

According to the designation, Lakewood city officials met at least five of the seven best practices for transparency over the past year as measured by Fabor’s office. In addition to addressing public information requests, the auditor also tracks how effectively municipalities offer an online presence to local residents in providing public documents such as its annual budget, salaries of public officials and city contact information.

Lakewood city officials have processed 542 public records requests this year as of Wednesday, according to the city’s public records request page.

In 2019, then-Lakewood councilperson Meghan George and council member Tristan Rader announced public records reforms. According to the legislation, city officials were seeking better policies which would “demystify the records request process” for the average resident as part of making city government more transparent.

The legislation included introducing a new online portal for public records requests, which offered a simple platform for local residents to use to obtain records.

In a news release announcing the top designation from the state, Rader said the recognition from the Auditor’s office is both timely and welcomed by city officials.

“Recent years have brought too many examples of bad policy relying on closed doors and secret dealing, while adapting to the pandemic has challenged us further to keep the government open and accessible,” Rader said. “Every effort we can make to raise the bar, for transparency, is important to honoring public trust.”