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Opinions
As chief law officer of the state, the Ohio Attorney General provides written opinions on legal questions at the request of designated public officials on issues arising in the course of their duties. The Attorney General’s Office does not prepare opinions for private citizens. The Opinions Section researches, writes, and prepares for issuance and publication all formal opinions of the Attorney General. For more details about the formal opinions process, please visit the Opinions FAQs.
Opinions prior to 1993 can be found under the Opinions Archive.
The Opinions Section also maintains a listing of previous AG Opinions that have been subsequently overruled.
The Opinions Section can be reached:
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Requested by: Geauga County Prosecuting Attorney
A township has no obligation to contribute toward the maintenance, construction, or reconstruction of a road outside of its boundaries. R.C. 5573.15 permits boards of township trustees to jointly improve a township road if the road is less than the “legal assessment distance” from the township line, which is the distance within which properties may be statutorily assessed for a township road improvement. A township may also assist another township in an emergency or pursuant to a mutual aid agreement. Generally, township joint road improvements may be paid from the same sources as the funding for roads within a township’s boundaries.
Requested by: Greene County Prosecuting Attorney
A political subdivision may use tax revenue generated from its levies for the purposes described in R.C. 5705.19(I) and (J) to pay a portion of its allocated cost for a countywide public safety answering point that provides access to firefighting, police protection, ambulance, or emergency medical services within the political subdivision. The portion of allocated costs paid with tax revenue from each such levy must be rationally related to the expenses incurred by the public safety answering point for providing such access and must be consistent with the political subdivision’s authorizing resolution and ballot language for the particular tax levy.
Requested by: Summit County Prosecuting Attorney
Neither R.C. 307.07 nor R.C. 307.85(A) provide an Ohio county or a multi-county joint office of economic development the authority to apply for and accept a grant of authority from the Foreign-Trade Zones Board to be a foreign trade zone grantee under 15 C.F.R. 400.12. A foreign trade zone grantee may be either a port authority or a corporation organized and chartered for the purpose of establishing, operating, and maintaining a foreign trade zone.
Requested by: Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney
In accordance with R.C. 2930.07, a public office that maintains case documents with a crime victim’s identifying information has discretion, but no obligation, to share the unredacted records with another public office or official that is charged with knowing a crime victim’s information. A public office or official is charged with knowing a victim’s identifying information only if they have duties related to the individual victim beyond a general concern or interest in public safety. A public office or official that receives unredacted case documents must not disclose a victim’s identifying information to an unauthorized person or the public if the victim previously requested to have information redacted or otherwise qualifies to have that information automatically redacted.
Requested by: Morrow County Prosecuting Attorney
A person may serve as both township fiscal officer and member of the board of zoning appeals in the same township, provided that the township fiscal officer refrains from assisting in the preparation of the township’s budget with respect to the board of zoning appeals.