You Don’t Get to Push Back on the Law: How Lorain Learned to Treat Public Records as Optional
at 1:00 am or watch tomorrows Replay
Tonight at 1:00 a.m. EST, we are going live for a long-form, unfiltered conversation about what actually happens when ordinary people ask their government for public records in Lorain and Lorain County.
This episode breaks down why the failures people keep experiencing are not glitches, staffing issues, or misunderstandings, but a deeply ingrained culture that treats transparency as something to manage, delay, and negotiate rather than comply with. We will walk through real email language, real denials, real fee games, and real obstruction, explaining how polite bureaucratic phrasing functions as a wall, how “process” replaces production, and why inspection rights are quietly being transformed into privileges.
We will also dissect the now-viral City Law Department video and the moment a government lawyer said he needed to “push back” on the word “you,” revealing exactly how accountability aversion shows up in real time when obligations are named plainly. From the McCann emails that were repeatedly denied and later proven to exist, to patterns now emerging around other City and County requests, this conversation connects the dots most people never get to see.
This is not a rant. It is documentation, context, and pattern recognition. We will explain how fees are used to deter access, how CLEIRs are stretched beyond their lawful lifespan, why records move faster when the press or Attorney General is copied, and why burnout is not an accident but a filtering mechanism.
We will also talk honestly about the cost of doing this work, why telling people to “just file a mandamus” is not a real solution, and why a transparency system that only works when someone is willing to absorb personal and financial harm is already broken.
If you have ever been told to wait without explanation, priced out of access, corrected on tone instead of answered on substance, or made to feel unreasonable for asking for records, this conversation is for you.
We go live at 1:00 a.m. EST.
Sunlight is not a favor. Accountability is not optional.
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