Barbara Peterson Appointed by Don Gaetz

There are times that I like Florida Senate President Don Gaetz. I hope appointing Barbara Peterson leads to the Florida legislature doing a better job of complying with the Sunshine laws.

“Barbara Peterson is Florida's respected guardian of open records, open meetings and open government," Gaetz said. “Her leadership of the First Amendment Foundation gives credibility and reliability to this important work. Her expertise in advising public officials, the media, courts and citizens about access to records will lead to more transparency and user-friendliness through a consolidation of many complex and duplicative websites.”

The mission of the First Amendment Foundation.

The First Amendment Foundation believes that government openness and transparency is critical to citizen trust and involvement in our democratic society – without Government in the Sunshine, civic engagement cannot bloom. Through ongoing monitoring of the state’s public records and open meetings laws, and the education of government officials and the citizens they serve about those laws, the Foundation promotes the public’s constitutional right to oversee and to participate in the governance process.

Services: Sunshine Monitoring: The Foundation monitors the Legislature, state agencies, the courts, and, when possible, local governments, for actions and issues related to open government, alerting its members through periodic reports of all open government activity.

FOI Hotline: The First Amendment Foundation runs the FOI Hotline, where callers to our toll-free number (800-337-3518) can get information and assistance with their questions about the application of the Sunshine Law and the Public Records Law. Currently, the FOI Hotline is averaging about 200 calls a month, with almost half coming from the general public. The Foundation also responds to emailed questions about open government. Contact us by email.

Let's hope that the Florida legislature listens to Peterson's recommendation. The Rick Scott administration has used private emails to avoid the Sunshine law. Unfortunately, the legislature hasn't challenged Scott for the lack of transparency. That needs to change.

Everything Is A Secret to Rick Scott

Gov. Rick Scott has handled the search for a new lieutenant governor with his usual sense of paranoia. On June 12, 2013, Scott's communication director Melissa Sellers told the Orlando Sentinel that they haven't started a search for Lt. governor candidates. Scott told political reporter Steve Bousquet that the process was "internal."

"The process is an internal process," Scott said. "It won't be done externally."

Translation: Scott isn't going to tell the media anything about the selection process. I find the secrecy more interesting than who will be the next Lt. governor. Scott isn't going to let the future Lt. governor do anything from a policy standpoint. I noted high light former Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll's schedule was. Scott is very secretive about a position he places little value in. Imagine the lack of transparency if Scott was President. Scott would make Nixon look like an open government advocate.

Was Redistricting Gerrymandered?

I am not shocked that former Florida House Speaker used a private email account to dodge Florida's Sunshine law.

But some emails show legislative employees exchanging information with these same consultants. In one example, a top aide to then-House Speaker Dean Cannon used a personal email account to send a consultant a link to a congressional district map. The aide, Kirk Pepper, did not respond to a phone call or email requesting comment.

There is good reason Republicans didn't want the emails. made public. Gary Fineout reports that party officials and lawyers had strategy sessions on redistricting.

The emails show that in December 2010 Republicans set up a meeting to "brainstorm" with nationally-known attorney Ben Ginsberg along with several party employees, party political consultants, two lawyers advising the House and Senate on redistricting, the staff director of the House committee redrawing lines and an aide to the chairman of the Senate committee overseeing the process.

The League of Women Voters, La Raza and Common Cause is now considering legal action. At issue is the voter approved fair district amendments that are now part of the Florida Constitution. The amendments were created to end gerrymandering. President Barack Obama won Florida but Republicans still hold both chambers of the legislature. Districting isn't entirely the reason that Democrats are in the minority. The Florida Democratic Party has been disorganized and has failed to field candidates for races.

Rick Scott's Transparency Problem

Tampa Bay Times political reporter Adam Smith perfectly summed up what is wrong with Rick Scott's media strategy. Case in point is the stonewalling of what happened to Scott's former rescue dog Reagan.

It's public relations 101: Dissembling, stonewalling and barking at reporters is no way to kill a story. Instead of simply explaining what happened to the adopted dog Scott touted to the public, his team helped turn what should have been a couple paragraphs at best into a front-page story that spread across the country.

This has been the Scott media strategy for everything. Team Scott withheld information about the TB outbreak in Florida. This ended up having serious health consequences for the public. Team Scott used private email accounts to avoid being held to the Sunshine laws for government transparency. If Scott can't be honest about the location of a pet than what can he be transparent about?

More Rick Scott Emails Lost

If the Florida legislature wasn't so sorrupt they would be would be investigating Gov. Rick Scott. Republicans in the Florida Senate didn't force Democrat Gary Siplin to step down after he was convicted of a felony grand theft. The legislislature isn't about to holding hearings for emails being deleted from Rick Scott's personal iPad.

Gov. Rick Scott's administration has acknowledged emails on the governor's personal iPad were accidently deleted, a potential violation of state law, an open-government advocacy organization said Friday.

A state information technology employee was trying to put an application on the tablet in May to retrieve and print out the emails to and from the governors transition team, but the 200 emails were deleted instead.

We are suppose to believe that the emails were lost while an unnamed employee was actually trying to retrieve them. This is an administration waited 8 months to go public about other emails from the transition team that were lost. This is the same administration that uses public email accounts to avoid the Sunshine law that allows the media to see emails from government email accounts. This is a governor that invoked the Fifth amendment 75 times in a 2000 deposition. There is no reason to give Scott the benefit of the doubt.

Scott knows he can get away with losing emails because the Republican-controlled Florida legislature will not investigate him. The current crop of Republicans could care less about their duties of upholding the laws. The embarrassment that is the Jim Greer trail is proof of that. What we have is Scott's power unchecked. Don't expect that an email from the Scott administration will ever see the light of day. Thanks to the legislature, Scott has been given the power to ignore the Sunshine law.

Rod Smith Wants Hearing Over Lost Gov. Scott Emails

Florida Democratic Party chairman Rod Smith is asking the Florida legislature to hold hearings on Gov. Rick Scott's transition team losing emails. There is zero chance of Senate President Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker Dean Cannon of taking their oversight duties seriously. This is why elections matters. If one chamber of the Florida legislature was Democratic hearing could be held.

Smith's letter is under the fold.

Read more »

Rick Scott Investigates Himself

It is always interesting when elected officials have to investigate themselves. Case in point are the Rick Scott transition team e-mails that were deleted. Many people were sceptical that this was an accident considering Team Scott's history of trying to go around Florida's Sunshine law. Blogger Peter Schorsch went nuclear and accused the Scott administration of being "Nixonian." With due respect to Peter, Scott isn't as Shakespearean as Nixon



Scott does share with Nixon the love of stonewalling and hiding information from the public.

It was an abrupt shift from Thursday, when Scott said during a St. Petersburg Times editorial board meeting that reporters had all of the e-mails in question.

In an interview with Associated Press editors Friday, Scott said "you give people as much information as you can" and promised that any public records request not handed over in 60 days should be done without any charge to news organizations.

The Sunshine require access to all public records. Not "as much information as you can."

The media first asked for these e-mails 8 months ago. Team Scott is only now confessing to the e-mails being lost. Chris Kise, who served on the transition team said that there were warnings the private firm handling the transition team's servers that the e-mails would be deleted once they stopped using the servers. The questions are why did the transition team ignore these warnings and why did it take 8 months to go public about losing the e-mails. This smells like a cover up.

Scott has called on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate why the e-mails were discarded. It is hard for me to believe that the FDLE can run a serious investigation on a governor that has the final say on the department's budget.

Team Scott's E-mails Deleted Excuse

Gov. Rick Scott hasn't been known for his love of transparency. Scott's Director Of Press Relations, Brian Burgess did a major fuck you to the media by posted a picture on Twitter of documents that the Scott Administration refused to release to the media. Scott has increased the cost and red tape involved in gaining access to documents. The Scott administration do not use government email accounts to communicate government business with each other. They use private Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail accounts. This is the same strategy the Bush administration used during the Bush administration scandal involving the firing of U.S. Attorneys. Like the Bush administration, Team Scott has accidently deleted their emails.

The e-mail accounts of Rick Scott and most of the governor-elect's transition team were deleted soon after he took office, potentially erasing public records that state law requires be kept.

Scott's team acknowledged for the first time this week that the private company providing e-mail service deleted the records as early as mid January, about the time the Times/Herald first sought transition e-mails.

Team Scott is using the incompetent excuse. Hey, don't blame them because they have computer skill below that of a 12 year-old. However, believe every word about them creating jobs during one of the worst economic times in memory. Team Scott is competent. Except when they are incompetent. Got that?

The ACLU is outraged about the loss of the emails.

The reports that Governor Scott’s transition team deleted email accounts which contained public records are just the latest chapter in the Scott administration’s ongoing saga of disregard for the constitutional requirement of open government.

Time and again, the Scott administration has violated the public trust with its disdain for transparency. Now, with public records that the law requires be kept potentially being deleted, the public trust isn’t all that may have been violated.

We are disappointed, but not surprised, that once again this administration has let down Floridians who expect transparency, openness, and honesty from their government.

We have a governor who has a history of not giving straight answers during depositions.

Brian Burgess: Worst Media Communication Person Ever

This is no exaggeration. I have corresponded with Burgess on Twitter. I can't believe a man this immature would be hired to handle traditional and new media communications for Gov. Rick Scott. Miami Herald reporter Marc Caputo inquired about a coffee get together Scott was having with members of the legislator. Burgess sent him back this e-mail.

"Coffee with 10 legislators - purely social," he said by email. "But thanks for ruining a perfectly good Saturday with my family so you could be first to report the non-story."

Burgess told me on Twitter that I was wrong about Scott staffers using using private e-mail accounts to avoid Florida's Sunshine law. Yet that is what Burgess did in forwarding Caputo's inquiry. Burgess also fires off more passive aggressive snark at Caputo.

Burgess wouldn't or couldn't say. He then forwarded the correspondence from his public email account to his private email account and asked this of Scott higher-ups, Hayden Dempsey and Spencer Geissinger: "Do we have the names of the people who will be enjoying a smile and warm cup of coffee with the Governor on Tuesday morning? Mr. Marc Caputo, copied on this email, believes Floridians will be clamoring for this information and hopes to attract dozens of hits to his blog. I would like to accommodate him in the spirit of openness, transparency and friendship."

This is the guy that is suppose to win the media over and get Scott good coverage. Keep attacking the media, Brian. That is bound to help your boss' low approval ratings.

Update: below Burgess worked for Scott he worked for District Attorney Phil Kline. It was Kline's personal quest to prosecute Dr. George Tiller. Burgess said this about the Kansas media in an e-mail.

“I really don’t miss some of you dipshits at all. Have fun in your world of make-believe.”

I say again. This is the man hired to garner Rick Scott positive media coverage.

Update: Burgess is paid $$110,000.04-a-year for his tactful skills with the media. Burgess' title is (I'm laughing as I type this) Director Of Press Relations.

Rick Scott's Staff Avoid Sunshine Law

It is public knowledge that Gov. Rick Scott does not use email. Sen. Bill Nelson discovered that Scott's political adviser Mary Anne Carter doesn't use her state government email.

"I rarely check and almost never respond to work e-mail because of the open record law," Carter wrote from her private e-mail account.

Nelson was shocked to receive this email.

Government officials using private email accounts was a trick used by Karl Rove during the U.S. Attorney scandal. The Bush administration used a non-government server to fire U.S. Attorneys not going after Democrats or prosecuting immigration caees that didn't exist. All the U.S. Attorneys were given good performance reviews before they were fired. The firings happened because Rove felt these U.S. Attoneys weren't furthering the Bush administration's political agenda.

The blog Talking Points Memo started investigating the U.S. Attorney scandal. Congress started holding hearings. 22 million emails on the server were deleted.

Scott has given an embarrassing deposition and had his health care companies investigated for criminal wrongdoing. Scott's former company Columbia/HCA was fined 1.7 billion for stealing money from Medicare. Scott was never charged but was forced to step down. Needless to say, there is a reason Scott doesn't want public records.

Money quote from Brian Burgess.

"Are there things we don't want to you to know? Yes," Burgess said. "There are things we don't want to broadcast to our opponents."

Sadly, Team Scott considers their opponents the people of Florida.

FDP, the Sunshine Law & Rick Scott

The Florida Democratic Party is accusing Gov. Rick Scott of not abiding to Florida's Sunshine laws. Eric Jotkoff, of the FDP, requested documents relating to the redistricting. Jotkoff has failed to receive any requested documents. Attorney Mark Herron sent Gov. Scott this letter. Herron informs Scott that if Jotkoff doesn't receive the document by April's Fool Day (I kid you not), the FDP will take the governor to court.

The Honorable Rick Scott

Governor

PL 05, The Capitol

Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001


RE: FDP Public Records Request of January 27, 2011

Dear Governor Scott:

On January 27, 2011, Eric Jotkoff, on behalf of the Florida Democratic Party (FDP), made the following request for public records:

Pursuant to Florida Statute 119.01(1), Florida Statutes, as member of the general public I am requesting that the Office of the Governor and any agency or agent acting under the direction of the Office of the Governor, as well as from the Gubernatorial transition, comply with its duty to provide access to public agency records, as afforded by Florida law pertaining to any and all of the following records related to Amendments 5 & 6 (commonly known as the Fair Districts Amendments), from November 3, 2010 to today, including the following:

- All documents including but not limited to all memos, emails, and correspondence relating to Amendments 5 & 6 including but not limited to Governor Scott’s decision to withdraw the application for preclearance from the U.S. Department of Justice.

- All documents including but not limited to all memos, emails, and correspondence regarding the use of taxpayer money on efforts to obstruct, delay or prevent Amendments 5 & 6 from being implemented after nearly 63% of Floridians voted to enshrine these amendments in the Florida Constitution.

- All documents including but not limited to all memos, emails, and correspondence regarding the appointment of Secretary of State Kurt Browning including but not limited to how this appointment would affect the implementation of Amendments 5 & 6.

I request that the information I seek be provided in electronic format via an electronic file, in lieu of hard copies.

On February 15, 2011, this request for public records was also forwarded to the Department of State, in accordance with Mr. Jotkoff’s understanding of the policy of the Governor’s Office that he needed separately to request these documents from the Department of State.

As of this date, the requested public records have not been provided to Mr; Jotkoff as required by Article I, Section 24, Florida Constitution, and Chapter 119, Florida Statutes. This request for public records has been pending in your office for two months and has been pending in the Department of State for six weeks.

On behalf of Mr. Jotkoff, it is requested that these public records be made available to Mr. Jotkoff by the noon on Friday, April 1, 2011. In the event that your office and the Department of State fail to do, please be advised that the FDP will pursue legal action to obtain these public records as provided by law.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please let me know.

Sincerely,

Mark Herron

Update: the documents will be released. The FDP won after threatening legal action.

McCollum Needs to See the Sunshine

In Sarasota, Bill McCollum said the Florida legislature is not a place for open government.

“I’m not sure the Legislature is the place for open government,” McCollum said. “I was a legislator and you can’t negotiate and do deals in the Legislature and get business done in 60 days or 90 days or whatever your session may be with open government, to be perfectly frank.”

That is a rather remarkable statement from Florida's Attorney General. The Florida Sunshine law requires all meetings of the Florida legislature to be public. Even the Florida cabinet must meet in public. Either McCollum is offering a personal opinion or doesn't understand the Sunshine law. If it is the former then McCollum would rather government business be done with less transparancy. If it is the latter then McCollum is a very bad lawyer.

Pancakes Are More Than For Breakfast

CFO Alex Sink is demanding the resignation of Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos and her aide Kevin Thibault. The latter sent emails to Kopelousos with the code words "pancake," "pancakes" and "french toast." The two were not making plans to hit Denny's grand slam breakfast menu. The words refered to the CSX contract for the recently approved Sunrail deal. The Sunshine law requires all government business be conducted in the open. Kopelousos gave an explanation that doesn't pass the laugh test.

"There was nothing more, nothing less than just that," said Kopelousos, appointed by Crist in 2007. "We were not trying to circumvent any public records request. It was just a mere eye-catcher so I would look at the e-mail."

Sink sent an email out to supporters demanding the immediate removal of Kopelousos and Thibault.

Dear Friend,

Like many of you, I woke up Monday only to learn that Florida Department of Transportation officials -- including Transportation Secretary Kopelousos -- may have deliberately used code words like “pancakes” and “waffles” during the back-room crafting of commuter rail legislation in order to disguise their communications and avoid the scrutiny of public record requests.

Apparently, these government officials, YOUR government officials, may have decided "pancakes" aren't just for breakfast anymore -- but, instead, are a way to duck transparency and cover their actions.

It's not cute, nor clever. It is outrageous. We have to change the way that the people's business is done in Tallahassee. That means holding our state government accountable and ensuring that Florida officials are living up to our state’s name -- and reputation -- as The Sunshine State.

That's why I called on Governor Charlie Crist to investigate this violation of Florida's "Sunshine Law" and hold every government official involved in this scheme accountable.

If Secretary Kopelousos and her staff have been hiding their communications from the people of Florida, they should immediately resign. Floridians deserve better than the deceptive conduct that has become commonplace in Tallahassee.

It's time to let the sunshine in and hold the career politicians accountable. Please forward this email to everyone you know -- and make sure Tallahassee knows that we're watching.

Gov. Charlie Crist originally defended Kopelousos. After catching heat from Republican State Senator Paula Dockery, Crist asked the state's inspector general to investigate the emails. My experience is Florida ethics investigations tend to go nowhere. What works against Kopelousos is Crist, Sink and Dockery are running for office. Crist doesn't need the hassle and Sink and Dockery are running as reformers.

SB 166

Via Alex Pickett: Florida Sen. Jeremy Ring (D - District 32) is the author of SB 166. The bill would restrict citizens from finding out about donors to public facilities. Because why would the public need to know who is coughing up cash to public institutions.

An act relating to public records; defining the term “publicly owned building or facility”; creating an exemption from public-records requirements for information that identifies a donor or prospective donor of a donation made for the benefit of a publicly owned building or facility if the donor desires to remain anonymous; providing for future legislative review and repeal of the exemption under the Open Government Sunset Review Act; providing a statement of public necessity; providing an effective date.

These donors are people whom contribute to political campaigns. A donor can give money to a pet project of a politician and remain anonymous under this potential law. The Sunshine law was created to curtail abuse from government. SB 166 would encourage back room deals.

Word of Advice to Florida Political Bloggers

Any e-mails you send to the offices of Florida government officials is public record. The Florida Supreme Court decision Times Publishing Company v. City of Clearwater ruled "WHETHER ALL E-MAILS TRANSMITTED OR RECEIVED BY PUBLIC EMPLOYEES OF A GOVERNMENT AGENCY ARE PUBLIC RECORDS PURSUANT TO SECTION 119.011(1)." The Sunshine law makes all e-mails received by Florida government computers public record. Just thought I let you know.