Florida transparency headlines
This article is a list of transparency related news from Florida.
U. of Florida ordered to make student senate meetings public 2011-01-20 10:32:16
Gainesville, FL This past week a Florida's 8th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Victor Hulslander issued a ruling ordering that the University of Florida open up student senate meetings to the public. The case originated when a UF alumni, Frank Bracco, filed suit, alleging that the University was in violation of the Florida Sunshine Law for failing to make the records of meetings of the student senate available to the public. The University argued that the records and meetings were exempt under FERPA. The court rejected this argument, siding with Bracco. The University has not announced if it is going to appeal the decision.[1]
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FL Courts reject case, denies public opportunity to comment at open meetings 2010-10-28 11:00:37
Tallahassee, FL The Florida Supreme Court this week rejected an appeal by two Pensacola citizens concerning the rights of citizens to comment during open meetings. In rejecting the decision, the court left an appellate court decision to stand which established that the Florida Open Meetings Law only guaranteed public access and not public participation.[2]
Miami FL records held hostage due to financial disputes 2010-07-26 12:41:37
Miami, FL Tens of thousands of boxes of public records produced by the city of Miami, FL are being held by "Iron Mountain Information Management" at a warehouse in Broward County. Iron Mountain refuses to release the records, alleging that Miami owed them over $340,000 in fees associated with their contract to store records, which came to an end in 2009. The city alleges that they only owe $22,000 and the city attorney has requested permission to employ any legal means necessary to regain the files. [3]
Miami Beach city council votes to end $100 flat rate for records requests 2010-07-23 11:58:26
- This story has been deemed Blog worthy!
North Miami Beach, FL This past week, the North Miami Beach city council voted to end a $100 flat rate fee for records request submitted to the Building Department. The flat rate fee runs counter to the Florida Sunshine Law, which only allows reasonable fees to be charged for duplication and copying. The fee had been in place since 2007.[4]
Florida circuit judge rules that calls made on public cellphones are public records 2010-05-19 07:23:54
New Smyrna Beach, Florida Last week Florida circuit judge Robert Rouse ruled that personal calls made from publicly funded cell phones are in fact public records and cannot be redacted from phone logs which also contain public business. The ruling came in response to a suit filed by Bill of Rights Inc. for the phone records of the New Smyrna Beach police commander, Bill Drossman. [5] While the court ordered the release of the majority of the records, the court maintained that certain personal calls on police phones, like calls to family or informants, would fall under other exemptions protecting the police and their informants.[6]
Crist Orders Investigation of "Wafflegate" Records 2009-12-16 15:26:48
Tallahassee, FL On Tuesday, Florida Governor Charlie Christ ordered an investigation into "Wafflegate" controversy that has overshadowed the passage of a recent Florida rail bill. The controversy centers on the Department of Transportation's alleged use of code words involving breakfast foods to conceal public records from officials. [7].
Florida judge rules against blogger 2009-11-11 12:48:09
HALLANDALE BEACH, Florida: On November 4, 2009, Patti Englander Henning, a judge of the Florida Seventeenth Circuit Court, ruled in favor of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida in a case the city had brought against blogger Mike Butler.
The city sued Butler after he submitted a request for records to the city under the Florida Sunshine Law[8][9]
Butler wanted a list of recipients of an email sent by Mayor Joy Cooper on February 17, 2009 from her personal America Online account. The subject line of the e-mail was "Mayor Cooper's Update." The e-mail included attachments to three columns written by Cooper for a weekly community newspaper addressing city policies. The e-mail included Cooper's city hall address and phone number. These characteristics of the e-mail led Butler to conclude that the e-mail was a public document, even though it had been sent on Cooper's personal email account.[8]
The city responded with a lawsuit against Butler. On November 4, 2009, Judge Henning ruled in favor of the city.[10]
Butler characterized the ruling from Henning as "shocking" and said that it runs counter to an advisory opinion issued in 2007 from Bill McCollum, Florida's attorney general, which says that e-mails from public officials "that are intended to communicate, perpetuate or formalize knowledge" are public records, regardless of whether or not they are sent using a public or governmental e-mail address.
Mayor Cooper said, "You're under the assumption that he's a good guy and he's the victim. But the victim is the city commission. I feel like my privacy has been raped."[8]
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Governor Crist requests a state-wide corruption investigation 2009-10-16 10:26:07
Crist has called for an eighteen member grand jury, which would last for a year and would be filled by citizens. The grand jury would be created in order to respond to two felt needs in Florida; outing corrupted public officials and toughening the corruption laws. The jury would have the authority to indict any public officials who are suspected of corruption and to recommend changes to the current corruption laws [11].
Crist says that corruption is a problem state-wide, but it is worst, he says, in South Florida. In the last month alone, many South Florida politicians have been the subjects of corruption cases. The list includes a Broward County Commissioner and School Board member, and three Commissioners from Palm Beach County. It also includes a political fundraiser and former Crist backer, Alan Mendelsohn, who is from Hollywood, Florida [12].
In the midst of the corruption scandals, the Florida Attorney General has expressed dissatisfaction with the current corruption laws in the state, which are much less strict than the federal corruption laws. The lenient corruption laws in Florida make prosecution difficult [13].
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Three Florida government officials arrested for extortion 2009-10-05 15:27:50
The agents slipped more than $40,000 in cash to the politicians while posing as corrupt businessmen. The FBI released hidden tape recorders entangling Commissioner Eggelletion, School Board member Gallagher and former Commissioner Salesman, but more arrests are expected.
Agents went public and questioned many people involved in Broward County's lucrative school building program, including lobbyists, school district employees and construction contractors.
"We are not done," said acting U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sloman.
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Broward County School Board member arrested 2009-10-05 15:08:17
Beverly Gallagher is a school board member for Broward County Public Schools, Florida, representing District 2. Her term is supposed to expire in 2012, which may change pending these charges.
Gallager is also the administrator for the scholarship foundation funded by the Community Blood Centers of South Florida, which recently revealed that its scholarships had not been distributed to students.
She was arrested for extortion, wire fraud and bribery after undercover FBI agents passed $12,500 to her in return for making arrangements for them to get school construction contracts.
According to the Federal Complaint, in 2005, Gallagher met with the undercover officers and told them "they could make a lot of money together." The charges say that in one meeting, she put $2,000 in a day planner and in another she left with $1,500. According to the charges, Gallagher helped steer a $71 million building contract for Hollywood Hills High School to supposedly benefit the undercover agents.[14] Template:2.default
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ↑ The Gainsville Sun, "Make Student Senate meetings public" 1/14/2011
- ↑ PNJ.com, "Citizen input is rejected" 10/27/2010
- ↑ Miami Herald, "Miami's files held `hostage'", 7/25/2010
- ↑ iStock Analyst, "Records request flat fee no longer will be charged by North Miami Beach: North Miami Beach officials removed a $100 flat fee for public records requests from the city's building department.", 7/23/2010
- ↑ Dayton Beach News Journal, "Judge: Personal calls on city cell phones not personal" 4/12/2010
- ↑ NSB News.net "Shadow claims victory in lawsuit against city involving cell phone records; city attorney says case not over" 4/19/2010
- ↑ Miami Herald, "Crist orders Fla. DOT e-mail investigation"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Sun Sentinel, "Score another win for weirdness in Hallandale", October 26, 2009
- ↑ Sun Sentinel, "Hallandale fights blogger seeking mayor's e-mail list", April 20, 2009
- ↑ Sun Sentinel, Text of "City of Hallandale Beach v. Michael Butler"
- ↑ Sun-Sentinel, Crist calls for statewide corruption grand jury.
- ↑ Sun-Sentinel, Crist calls for statewide corruption grand jury.
- ↑ Sun-Sentinel, Crist calls for statewide corruption grand jury.
- ↑ "Outlne of charges against Beverly Gallagher," Sun-Sentinel, September 23, 2009
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