Commissioner John McNally filed a lawsuit on Thursday, against two fellow colleagues, and it's all because of paperwork.  An empty chair sits between John McNally and George Tablack at a commissioners meeting, a physical barrier, showing the tension between the two.   At one point, Tablack even hands over his office key to McNally, pretty much saying take what you want.  McNally response: it's a nice bit of theater, but he doesn't need a key to the office, just the documents he requested.

"I was very sincere about giving him a key to the office..the theater is this lawsuit.", states George Tablack.

Commissioner McNally explains, "My whole goal is to get the documents I requested, it's not my job to chase people down for the request I make."

McNally says he asked for documents about the Oak Hill Renaissance Place back in April and that Tablack and Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains have repeatedly denied him.  "I can't make these decisions without seeing documents I want. Other people might not need it, but when I ask to see something, I expect to see it.", states McNally.

Tablack says with thousands and thousands of documents to sort through, it's taking a lot of time.  He only wishes McNally would have asked him personally about the status of the request, instead of filing a lawsuit.  Tablack says, "With the challenges we have in county government and as hard as we all work, the last thing we need is to be lawyer-ed inside our county government."

Tablack says he will comply with the request, while McNally says he's willing to drop the suit once he gets the records.  A hearing on the issue is scheduled for August 11th.