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Office of the Public Access Counselor, in.gov/pac — the year archive pages for 2004–2012 scanned whole; full text read unless a line states a lesser strength
The enumeration is whole, and two of the nine years are empty. The Counselor's archive pages for each year 2004 through 2012 were opened and scanned entire for opinions naming this town as respondent; thirty-nine documents answer. The 2009 and 2010 pages contain none — Dorothy Snyder appears in 2009 only as a complainant against other agencies (09-FC-50, 09-FC-51), outside this section. Three Counselors sign the file: Karen Davis (2004 to mid-2007), Heather Willis Neal (mid-2007 through 2008), and Joseph B. Hoage (2011–2012). The opinions are advisory; each states what the Open Door Law (ODL) or the Access to Public Records Act (APRA) required of the town, and this section's own pattern — violations found, conditional holdings, and a balance of no violation — is the era's governance record at its most exact.
2004 — the file opens with the Council in violation. In the consolidated opinions 04-FC-138 / 04-FC-139 (13 September 2004; Samuel and Elizabeth McCombs, complainants), Counselor Davis held the Council violated the Open Door Law when a majority of its members visited a prospective police-station property at the northeast corner of Dixie Way North and Pendle Street on 31 July 2004 without notice — not an on-site inspection, not an administrative function; the Counselor expressly declined to opine on the marriage of two of the three council members, named in the text as David Snyder and Dorothy Paul (the name forms print as the record gives them; conflict C66). 04-FC-143 (13 September 2004; Lou Valderas) found the same gathering an ODL violation and a second violation in APRA: Clerk-Treasurer Cheryl Gridley had denied draft July minutes as unapproved. 04-FC-145 (15 September 2004; Louis A. Valderas) held a noticed special meeting at the Bit of Swiss in Stevensville, Michigan, "violated the spirit, but not the letter of the Open Door Law," and found the Clerk-Treasurer again in violation of APRA over the draft minutes. The year's balance found no violation: 04-FC-164 (ordinance-book access fulfills APRA; the clerk need not research it), 04-FC-171 (bank reconciliation), and 04-FC-203 (snippet strength).
2005 — one violation, on an agenda. 05-FC-24 (28 February 2005; Michael G. Schalk) alleged the complainant's forcible removal from the 13 January 2005 meeting; the town did not violate the ODL. 05-FC-54 (21 April 2005) held the Council violated the ODL "to the extent that it posted a different agenda from the printed agenda that it utilized" at the 5 March 2005 meeting; the opinion prints the complainant as Leray R. Stokes — the Tribune's index renders the name "Ralph Stokes," and the pair prints unmerged with the opinion governing (conflict C67). 05-FC-140 (11 August 2005; Arnold H. Gardner) found an APRA violation: the Council and Zoning Commissioner answered a records request well past seven days, and not at all to the Counselor.
2006 — the removal standard. The year's flagship is 06-FC-96 (12 July 2006), verified at full text: Kelly Catanzarite, Rosemary Penn, and Michael G. Schalk — the same Schalk who presides over the town's council in the present roster — complained of removals at the 8 June 2006 meeting, over which Council President Dorothy Snyder presided. The holding, verbatim: "the Roseland Town Council may deny a person the right to observe and record a meeting only if the person's removal is reasonable under the circumstances and is necessary to prevent disruption of the meeting." The opinion made no per-complainant violation finding on facts it called "not crystal clear," and the standard it set governed the era's later removals. 06-FC-148 (20 September 2006; Rosemary Penn) applied it: the 10 August 2006 removal stood under the 06-FC-96 standard on disputed facts the Counselor is "not constituted" to determine, and the 24 August meeting — a single member meeting the John David Mooney Foundation, an unmarked cancellation — was no violation.
2007 — this section's densest year, and its center of gravity shifts. Dorothy Snyder left the council at the turn of the year (the era's end article below), and the 2007 opinions show the new alignment at once: the consolidated 07-FC-6 / 07-FC-7 / 07-FC-12 (8 February 2007) — complainants including Dorothy Snyder and Clerk-Treasurer Gridley, against a council the opinion fixes as Charles Shields (President), Teddy Penn, and David Snyder — held none of the alleged gatherings (the Greenscapes snow contract, Redevelopment Commission appointments) an ODL violation, with a conditional edge: the Council "violated the Open Door Law if a majority of the Town Council met to take official action… without posting notice." 07-FC-24 (Dorothy Snyder against the Police Department, over report #07-001) found no APRA violation. 07-FC-51 and 07-FC-62 (Gridley against the Council) state conditional violations — records denied without a cited exemption; a closed-door gathering of Shields and Penn that "it appears they did" hold. 07-FC-65 (David Snyder) found no violation. 07-FC-79 / 07-FC-87 (25 April 2007) found none in the Clay Fire Territory hearing notice (the newspapers article carries the holding). 07-FC-101 (17 May 2007) found the Council violated the ODL: an executive-session notice misstated its purpose, and the 13 April meeting hired Michael Lipsky as interim town attorney. 07-FC-127 (8 June 2007; David Russell Snyder against the Council) is this section's hinge — the 1 May 2007 emergency meeting at President Shields's home, 212 Darby Place, called as the Clerk-Treasurer's lawsuit landed: the Counselor placed the burden on the Council to show the meeting met the Open Door Law, the town having had notice on 26 April that the suit would be filed; the opinion is also the primary public record of that suit, and the litigation article below works from it. 07-FC-140 found no violation if the 24 May gathering took no official action. 07-FC-149 (camera-photography rule) found no violation — the rule passed 2–1 at the noticed 31 January meeting; the original opinion carries an internal inconsistency, addressees Gridley and Dorothy Snyder under a salutation reading "Dear Mr. Sellers," reported here as printed. 07-FC-171 found no APRA violation (the clerk-treasurer is herself the custodian of minutes). 07-FC-269 found no evidence of an APRA violation, and references "the State Board of Accounts audit of your office." 07-FC-279 (Dorothy Snyder) held the town had a statutory duty to let taxpayers speak at the 12 September 2007 budget hearing.
2008 — the file follows the Clerk-Treasurer's office. 08-FC-14 (17 January 2008; Gridley) found no ODL violation in the alleged secret December meetings: attorney Lipsky had been authorized at the public 18 October 2007 meeting to file "whatever is needed," and a second action was filed 18 December 2007 — the opinion is a key carrier for the council's actions against Gridley, worked in the litigation article. 08-FC-35 and 08-FC-65 (Dorothy Snyder; snow-plowing bids, an alleged secret bid meeting) found no violation. 08-FC-94 (Gridley) found none — the town answered her fax the next day. 08-FC-145 (27 June 2008; Dorothy Snyder against Clerk-Treasurer Susan Hammons) found the Clerk violated APRA in part: she withheld town attorney Michael Lipsky's emails without the required statement of the specific exemption, and did not otherwise violate the act. 08-FC-161 (12 July 2008; David Snyder) found the Council violated the ODL — a meeting held one day before the date on its public notice, the date fixed by a South Bend Tribune report of 13 June 2008; the opinion's own statute citations differ between body and conclusion, and both print as printed.
2011–2012 — this section's tail runs through the federal case. After the empty years, 11-FC-220 (28 September 2011; David R. Snyder) found the town violated the ODL: notice for the 29 August 2011 special meeting was due by 5:00 p.m. on 25 August and was not given; the town filed no response. 11-FC-265 (10 November 2011) answered David R. Snyder's request for "any document that relates in any way to the litigation… Case No. 3:08-CV-00470" — not reasonably particular as framed, but the town was to provide responsive agendas and minutes and to produce on a particular resubmission; the opinion independently confirms the federal caption and number the next article works. 11-FC-269 (10 November 2011; Dorothy M. Snyder) found no APRA violation in the handling of her request for four months of cell-phone bills and claims used by council member Elizabeth McCombs — Clerk-Treasurer Robin Ackerson acknowledged the request the same day and all responsive records were provided. The 2012 opinions close the file: 12-FC-14 (23 January 2012; David R. Snyder) held the town "acted contrary to the APRA by denying part (2)" of a request as overly broad — Ordinance Violation No. 00011 and all police violation notices 2010–2012 — and did not otherwise violate it; the town stated it would not pursue the ordinance violation. 12-FC-61 (29 March 2012) found no violation; its recited complaint carries an allegation about forgiven code-violation fines, printed at its exact strength in the fines article below. 12-FC-101 (17 May 2012) found no violation in the Clerk-Treasurer's not personally responding; its recited complaint states the Hammons resignation and Ackerson appointment of 6 January 2012, carried in the era's end article at recitation strength. 12-FC-104 (21 May 2012; Glen R. Klopfenstein against the Police Department) found the Department violated APRA — a police report by the marshal (the opinion spells the office "Marshall") Aaron Catanzarite, of 2 April 2012, withheld with no response and no justification offered.