Georgia Attorney General’s Office to pursue open records request by Ledger-Enquirer, city of Columbus

The Georgia Attorney General’s Office will pursue an open records request that the city of Columbus and the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer submitted to a Marietta, Ga., nonprofit organization.

The request sought records relating to a Nike sponsorship deal with a Columbus Parks and Recreation youth basketball team.

After the Ledger-Enquirer filed the Georgia Open Records Act request two weeks ago, the assistant city attorney informed the newspaper that the city government did not have the records and that they were housed with East Marietta Basketball Inc., which handles the Nike sponsorship for the Columbus team.

William Fox, the nonprofit’s director of basketball operations, sent the city an e-mail last week refusing to produce the Nike contract.

Government records held by a third party are considered public under state law.

Assistant City Attorney Jaimie DeLoach reported to the attorney general that East Marietta Basketball Inc.’s response allegedly violated the law.

“I have done what I can do and have turned it over to the state,” DeLoach said Thursday. “The attorney general’s office has accepted my request for help and opened a case.”

Daryl Robinson, with the attorney general’s office, confirmed that its Open Records Mediation Unit is looking into the matter.

“The next step is to send a letter to the party being accused of not complying with the law,” Robinson said.

That letter should go out in a couple of days, and East Marietta Basketball Inc. will have a week or so to respond, Robinson said.

“The first thing we will do is determine if the document should be released,” Robinson said. “In the vast majority of the cases, the party will release the information if we determine it should be released.”

William Fox, director of basketball operations for East Marietta Basketball Inc., has not responded to Ledger-Enquirer phone calls. An attempt to contact him on Thursday was unsuccessful.

In a May 6 letter to the attorney general, DeLoach wrote, “It is my understanding that when a private entity performs services on behalf of a public agency, the records concerning such services are as open as are the records of a public agency.”

Dimon Kendrick-Holmes, acting editor of the Ledger-Enquirer, said the newspaper will continue to pursue public records.

“At the newspaper we believe that public information should be available to the public, and that it’s our job to fight for freedom of information,” Kendrick-Holmes said. “We appreciate that the city attorney’s office and the Georgia Attorney General’s Office are pursuing these public documents.”

The Georgia Blazers under-17 team is a Nike-sponsored group that operates out of Columbus’ city-funded Innovative Sports Program, which fields developmental and elite teams in boys and girls basketball, track and field, and boxing. Columbus Parks and Recreation Director Tony Adams coaches the under-17 elite team, which has 13 players on its roster, one of whom is from Columbus. The team plays games throughout the country. In the past two months, it has played Nike Elite Youth Basketball League games in the Hampton Roads area in Virginia, Houston and Los Angeles.

The Innovative Sports Program was questioned in a recent Parks and Recreation Department audit ordered by Columbus Mayor Jim Wetherington. The auditor noted that during the past several years, $100,000 to $150,000 has been spent annually on the Innovative Sports Program. The under-17 Blazers team has been sponsored by Nike since 2006. The company supplies uniforms, shoes and funding for Nike-sponsored events.

This story was originally published June 4, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Georgia Attorney General’s Office to pursue open records request by Ledger-Enquirer, city of Columbus."