October 26, 2015
Mayor Lloyd Winnecke
City of Evansville
1 NW Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Suite 301 Evansville, IN 47708
Dear Mayor Winnecke,
Pursuant to Indiana Code §5-14-3-3, I am making a public records request of your office concerning the investigation of former City Council At-Large candidate Jack Schriber (“Schriber investigationâ€). According to the law, you have 24 hours to acknowledge that such a request has been made.
I am requesting copies of public records that contain the following information:
- ï‚· Â Records, including but not limited to written correspondence and emails, between the officeof the mayor (including you) and any and all law enforcement officials involved in theSchriber investigation from the time the investigation began until present.
- ï‚· Â Records, including but not limited to written correspondence and emails, between the officeof the mayor (including you) and any non-law enforcement staff of the City of Evansville, orany other person regarding the Schriber investigation.
- ï‚· Â Records, including but not limited to written correspondence and emails, between or amongyou, your official staff, your campaign staff and any officials with the Vanderburgh County Republican Party regarding Jack Scriber during 2015.For purposes of clarity, we are hopeful that by seeking this information, the people of Evansville, of Vanderburgh County, and of the state will have answers to the following questions by reference to the requested records:
- At what date did you, Mayor, first learn of the Schriber investigation? What information were you told about the nature of the investigation?
- How often were you kept apprised of the progress or new details in the investigation? From the time it has been reported that Mr. Scriber “confessedâ€, what work was done on the investigation prior to its closure?
- Did you give any direction to investigators as to what you wished to learn or not learn during the course of the investigation?
- After you learned of the investigation, did you continue to make personal or campaign committee contributions to Mr. Schriber’s political campaign? Did you publicly support his candidacy in general following the investigation being opened and your knowledge of it?
- What conversations did you have with Vanderburgh County Republican Party officials regarding Mr. Schriber standing as a candidate for public office while there was an active investigation?6. Similarly, what conversations were held about how the investigation’s outcome might impact Mr. Schriber’s chances for election? Were there conversations about whether, if victorious, he would serve or resign, and how such a vacancy would be filled if a resignation occurred?
The nature of the investigation and the subject matter involved are sensitive. However, to maintain the integrity of our democratic system, it is critical that the people of Evansville, specifically, have a full and transparent understanding of the conduct of their elected and political leadership.
With respect to the records requested, in conformance with your obligations under Indiana law, we hereby expressly request that you provide partial responses where documents are immediately available. Further, to the extent you make any claim of exception to production of responsive records, we request in accordance with your obligations under Indiana law that you identify each subsection of the Indiana Access to Public Records Act upon which such exception purportedly is based. Moreover, we remind you that records for which you claim an exception to disclosure may not be withheld in whole, but rather must be redacted only as to the parts of such records for which the exception is asserted.
Finally, we realize that there may be charges associated with producing copies of responsive records and hereby provide you advance notice of our willingness to make immediate payment for such charges upon identification by you of a complete or any partial response.
Thank you for your attention and prompt response.
Sincerely,
John C. Zody
Chairman of the Indiana Democratic PartyÂ