Hallandale Beach, Florida
From Sunshine Review
Hallandale Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida.[edit] Lobbying
- Main article: Florida taxpayer-funded lobbying and Florida League of Cities
Hallandale Beach has reported money spent on lobbying in 2008 and 2009. For both years, expenditures were less than $10,000.[1] Hallandale Beach pays membership dues[2] to the Florida League of Cities, a taxpayer-funded lobbying association.
[edit] Lawsuit against blogger
The City of Hallandale Beach sued blogger Mike Butler after he submitted a request for records to the city under the Florida Sunshine Law[3][4]
Butler requested from the city 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.[3]
The city responded with a lawsuit against Butler. On November 4, 2009, Broward County Circuit Judge Patti Henning ruled in favor of the city.[5]
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."[3]
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ↑ Open Secrets - Hallandale Beach
- ↑ Membership Directory
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 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"
