Home
>
News
>
Local News
Exclusive investigation
County improperly disposed of documents, told no one
10,600 people possibly affected; commissioners opt to 'wait and see if there is any response from clients'
Hot Topics
By Josh Sweigart,
Staff Writer
12:58 AM Sunday, June 13, 2010
HAMILTON — When a mound of Middletown city documents containing people’s private information was found in a public Dumpster this spring, it wasn’t the first — or largest — such security breach by a local government.
An investigation by this newspaper has found that Butler County’s Department of Job and Family Services learned in 2008 that confidential records from that agency were being “periodically” improperly disposed of in a public bin.
An internal analysis by the agency found that 10,600 people could have been affected.
This is the number of people who used the JFS office at 4122 Tonya Trail in Fairfield Twp., where the documents originated. They included case notes and verification forms dealing with the Ohio Works First, food stamps, Medicaid and child care programs.
Though the records were supposed to be shredded using a document disposal company, county officials found that office had been simply throwing the records in a recycling bin.
That’s where they were found by a member of the public on July 18, 2008.
The county took action to make sure the records were disposed of properly, and considered notifying the people who may have had information compromised.
Officials drafted a letter suggesting people could use a free Internet service to guard against identity theft.
But they never sent the notice out.
Instead, they decided to “wait and see if there is any response from clients,” according to internal memos.
Two years later, those clients still have no knowledge their information could have been compromised.
“They should have told us from the very beginning,” said Christina Cruz, who used the JFS office during that time.
County held back on response to a records breach
When Jerome Kearns first saw the pile of confidential records from his office in a Dumpster by Butler Tech, he thought they were stolen.
It was July 18, 2008. County records lay out in detail what happened next: what county officials did — and didn’t — do.
There were piles of papers — files from Butler County Job and Family Services, where Kearns is assistant director, and from LifeSpan, the county engineer’s office, Children Services, and Butler County Child Support Enforcement Agency.
Some of the records contained confidential information, such as case notes and eligibility verifications for food stamps, Ohio Works First, subsidized child care and Medicaid programs.
Kearns estimates there were about 10 60-gallon trash bags of records. He called co-worker Adam Jones because Jones had a pickup truck.
“They weren’t going to fit in my Elantra,” Kearns said. “There was a significant number of records there.”
The records had been found by a member of the public.
“Some member of the community (was) throwing their stuff in there, and picked one up and thought they were important,” Kearns said.
Kearns took the records back to where they presumably came from, the JFS office at 4122 Tonya Trail, off Liberty Fairfield Road in Fairfield Twp.
Documents pitched 'periodically’
It didn’t take long to solve the mystery.
The next day, Kearns asked Kim Gay, manager of that office, where the bins were that she used for confidential information. In other county offices, special bins were periodically picked up by the company Royal Document Destruction for shredding.
The Fairfield Twp. office, which had been open since January 2007, had no such bins. Staffers there had been throwing records in the recycling bins. Believing that there was no confidential information involved, a worker for Butler County Environmental Services, which handles recycling for county offices, “had dumped these bins at community sites periodically over the last six months,” Kearns wrote later.
County officials went into action.
They brought new, secure bins to the Tonya Trail office. They pulled records and found 10,600 people who had used that office in the prior 12 months. They researched a company that provides protection for people at risk of identify theft, and what it would cost to cover all those people.
They put together a list of addresses, and drafted a letter notifying people who may have been affected.
“Although we consider the risk to you to be relatively low, the fact is that we failed to adequately protect your confidentiality, and we want to rectify that now,” the letter said.
Then, they did nothing. The letter never went out.
“I asked Tim (Williams, then county administrator) for direction regarding our records that were found in a (D)umpster,” says a Aug. 19, 2008, memo from Kearns. “Tim indicated that (county) commissioners would like to wait and see if there is any response from clients.”
“Tim does not want us to send a letter out notifying clients that their records might have been compromised,” the memo says.
Commissioners respond
Two commissioners said they were satisfied there was no proof that anyone had their information misused, and that the risk of that happening was low.
“There was nothing to lead us to believe there was more (records dumped in public bins),” said Commissioner Donald Dixon. “We were advised the risk was not sufficient to warrant any other action at that time.”
Share this article
Breaking news by e-mail
Start your day with top headlines in your inbox and get breaking news e-mail alerts at any time by subscribing to our Headlines e-mail newsletter.
See Sample | Privacy PolicyView All
Top Jobs
 |
 |
Lastest news blog posts
About our ads
About our adsCopyright © 2010 Oxford Press, Oxford, Ohio, USA.All rights reserved.
By using this site, you accept the terms of our Visitors Agreement and Privacy Policy. About our ads. You may wish to note our other business policies.
9:41 PM, 6/14/2010
6:52 PM, 6/14/2010
1:49 PM, 6/14/2010
12:24 PM, 6/14/2010
11:00 AM, 6/14/2010