A familiar tale of public agency obfuscation:

"Responses to open-records requests have called [Ohio Medicaid Director Maureen] Corcoran's truthfulness into question in the past.

"In an attempt to check her claim, the Capital Journal on Aug. 24 filed a request under the Ohio open records act for all written communications — including text messages — between [Governor Mike DeWine friend and Centene lobbyist Michael] Kiggin and the governor's office and between Kiggin and the Medicaid department since he registered as Centene's lobbyist in January.

"Three weeks later, Medicaid attorney J. Andrew Stevens responded by saying the request was 'overly broad' — a claim frequently invoked by Ohio officials when the press asks for records under state law. But he also claimed the Medicaid department lacked the means to conduct the search.

"'Regarding your request for all written communications including text messages, Medicaid is unable to conduct electronic searches for those documents,' Stevens said in a letter that didn't include his email address or his phone number. 'Accordingly, Medicaid denies these requests as ambiguous and overly broad.'

"The attorney general's 2021 manual on Ohio Sunshine Laws lays out a process to resolve such quandaries, assuming they genuinely exist. It said the 'Public Records Act expressly promotes cooperation to clarify and narrow requests that are ambiguous or overly broad, in order to craft a successful, revised request.'

"Since Stevens didn't include his contact information, the Capital Journal on Sept. 21 followed up with Corcoran and the governor's office in an attempt to clarify why the government believed it couldn't respond. Was Stevens saying that Medicaid can't conduct searches of any emails or text messages, some emails or text messages, or all emails but not text messages?

If any of those were the case, the agencies were asked, what's to keep Medicaid officials from simply writing communications using media they know will be hidden from the public?

"Almost two weeks later, those questions were unanswered."