By Henry J. Gomez, The Plain Dealer

January 12, 2010, 4:05AM

With Laura Johnston, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason and former Sheriff Gerald McFaul, both criticized for accepting campaign cash from their employees, have avoided closer scrutiny amid an effort to make politics more transparent.

Last month, the Board of Elections removed finance reports submitted by Mason and McFaul from a public database launched days earlier on the board’s Web site.

Jane Platten, the board’s director, said she quickly took down the reports after an assistant county prosecutor raised the possibility of a lawsuit. At issue is whether the home addresses of the deputies, prosecutors and other law enforcement officers who gave money to their bosses can be released with public records under Ohio law.

“I didn’t want to expose us to any lawsuits,” Platten said. “I want to do this the right way.”

Only after being questioned by The Plain Dealer did Mason’s office give Platten the go-ahead to simply black out the addresses of the employees and put the reports back online. The green light came Monday — four weeks after Platten said she first learned of the concerns.

David Marburger, an attorney who specializes in open records law, questioned why the full campaign finance reports were taken down when the addresses were the only concern.

“It seems laughable you would take down the entire record just to withhold somebody’s address,” said Marburger, who has represented The Plain Dealer in public records cases.

Both Mason and McFaul are Democrats.

McFaul resigned last year as the newspaper uncovered scandals in his office. His money-raising practices are among several alleged misdeeds that state investigators are looking at as they explore the longtime lawman’s tenure in public office.

Mason received more than $100,000 from employees between 2004 and 2008, records show. Opponents of a victorious county government reform measure that Mason championed last year made that an issue, and the prosecutor has pledged to return the scrutinized donations.

Those controversies are not what led to the removal of their campaign finance reports, said Barbara Marburger, an assistant county prosecutor. “It is a coincidence.”

Barbara Marburger is the ex-wife of David Marburger.

Ohio Revised Code allows peace officers, prosecuting attorneys, assistant prosecuting attorneys and other law enforcement workers to keep their home addresses from becoming public record.

The Board of Elections is not required to make campaign finance records available electronically, but began doing so last month to improve transparency. Soon after, Barbara Marburger said, someone from the sheriff’s department complained that employee addresses were included with the reports placed online, prompting a call from the prosecutor’s office to the elections board.

New Sheriff Bob Reid said deputies upset that their addresses had been posted online complained to an employee relations administrator, who shared those concerns with Mason’s office. Reid added that he believes deputies’ names, at least, should be listed.

“If you’re good with contributing to someone’s campaign, my opinion is your name should be on the roster,” Reid said Monday in a phone interview. “A public record is a public record.”

Because the law also covers prosecutors, Platten said she agreed in mid-December to remove the McFaul and Mason reports. She also agreed to wait for legal advice from Mason’s office before deciding whether to put them back online and how.

Four weeks passed. On Monday, the same day Mason’s office fielded questions from The Plain Dealer, Barbara Marburger told Platten the reports could be re-posted after redacting home addresses on the form required for disclosing employee donations.

Platten said she hopes to have the documents back online “as soon as possible.” As of Monday night, the information had not been posted on the board’s Web site.

Typically, redacting information exempt from public records requests is as simple as crossing out the information with a black permanent marker. Asked why it took so long to recommend such a quick and common-sense fix, Marburger blamed herself.

“The only person responsible for the delay,” she said, “is me.”

Two elections board members — Republican Rob Frost and Democrat Sandy McNair — expressed no problem Monday with the earlier removal of the reports. Both said that including the addresses of law enforcement officers is a valid safety concern.

“Obviously, ours is a goal of transparency,” said Frost, chairman of the county’s Republican Party. “I think both the media and the public have a right to know who’s giving to whom.”