Great Scott!

Rick Scott's "Transparency:" Release All Email... From an Obscure, Unknown Account

By Stefan Kamph Tue., Jul. 31 2012 at 8:45 AM
Categories: Great Scott!, Public Records
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Twitter recently suspended the account of Independent reporter Guy Adams, who had been writing tweets critical of Twitter partner NBC's coverage of the Olympics. The reason it gave? In one of the rants, he gave the corporate email address of an NBC executive. Twitter said it booted him for sharing a "personal or private" email address, even though it was clearly through a Google search.

Gov. Rick Scott has sort of the opposite problem. He's been gleefully trumpeting since May that all of his emails are broadcasted online in real time... ya know, for transparency.

Only problem, says the Herald today? The live feed was from an obscure alternate email account used mainly by Tea Partiers and fervent supporters.

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email, Rick Scott, Sunburst, transparency
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Environment

Should We Respect the Ideas in Public Records, No Matter How Silly They Are?

By Stefan Kamph Mon., Jun. 4 2012 at 10:56 AM
Categories: Environment, Public Records
Thumbnail image for 239px-American_Beaver.jpg
Here's a conundrum. Last week, via the environmentalist group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, we got wind of some notes from a meeting of state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officials last year that showed some unorthodox -- some might say laughable -- ideas. Our brief blog item on the subject was largely based on PEER's news release and shared its derision of three pretty bad ideas for how to make money off state land.

We might be playing a dangerous game here. After all, the notes were released to PEER thanks to Florida's strong public-records laws, which more often than not are the lifeblood of organizations like ours looking to see how government functions. Calling out an official for lying or unveiling a coverup is one thing. But when public records are obtained, then publicized, just to make the people generating and providing them look silly?

Well, if some asshat politician tries to trim back public records availability, he might well use behavior like ours as an excuse.

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Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Jerry Phillips, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, state forests
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Law

Broward Clerk of Courts Scrambling to Comply With New Florida Public-Records Laws

By Stefan Kamph Thu., Apr. 26 2012 at 12:27 PM
Categories: Law, Public Records
howardforman.gif
Howard Forman, who now has to pay people to hide information from you.
For members of the public (including the news media), getting court files from the Broward County Clerk of Courts has been a somewhat arduous process in recent years. The clerk's offices are crowded and short-staffed, and members of the public need to awkwardly sign in on a clipboard while an overworked employee reads the clipboard upside-down to see what case files are needed, then shuttles back and forth to get old records delivered from an off-site warehouse in three to five days.

In recent years, the process got worse, as the state government cut clerks' budgets and staff was further reduced. Still, there was a bright side: If a court file was present in the building, you could look at it right away.

That has all changed now, as new Florida laws require the clerk to redact personal information from any file before it's handed over. Now, it takes a week to see files that are already there. And behind the scenes, the clerk's office is struggling to keep up with requests and with the new law. More »

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Broward County Clerk of Courts, court records, Howard Forman, Iris Siple, redaction
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Election

Allen West Campaign Outraises Almost Every Other House Member; Money Coming From Everywhere

By Rich Abdill Thu., Feb. 2 2012 at 7:55 AM
Categories: Election, Public Records
Thumbnail image for allen_west_flag_feature.jpg
Allen West: Rolling in the deep (pockets).
​Say what you will about Allen West as a legislator; as a fundraiser, there's no doubting that he's very, very good. Finance documents submitted to the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday complete a picture of 2011 fundraising that reveals he's raised about $5.8 million so far in the election cycle. That's more than any member of the U.S. House of Representatives other than Speaker John Boehner, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Campaigns are required to disclose donor information for contributions totaling more than $200; of West's $5.8 million, just under $2.7 million is itemized as these large donations -- and a New Times geographic analysis reveals that well more than half of it isn't from Florida.

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Allen West
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Million Dollar Ideas

Here Are Stephen Colbert's Super PAC Campaign Finance Documents

By Rich Abdill Tue., Jan. 31 2012 at 7:45 AM
Categories: Celebrities, Election, Million Dollar Ideas, Politics, If You Can Call It That, Public Records
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"Gimme dat money!"
​I admit there's almost no Broward/Palm Beach connection to the super PAC run by Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, but I'm going to be waist-deep in South Florida's disclosure forms for a while, so hopefully this will tide you over.

Though the forms cover July through December 2011 only, the cover sheet to Colbert's forms says the PAC has raised just over a million dollars as of yesterday, an unnecessary disclosure that seems to indicate that they knew lots of folks would be looking at the packet.

Well, that and a statement attached to the forms from Colbert that says, "Yeah! How you
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Frank Brunckhorst, Simon Sherr, Stephen Colbert
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Outlaw Town

Southwest Ranches Prison Opponent Is Suing the Town for $1.25 Over Public Records

By Stefan Kamph Wed., Dec. 7 2011 at 1:45 PM
Categories: Outlaw Town, Public Records
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​Bill Di Scipio, a Southwest Ranches resident who is spearheading the campaign against a proposed ICE detention facility, has bombarded the town with public-records requests for months now. Some of his requests have been successful, yielding emails that provide a glimpse into the otherwise secretive negotiations that have gone on as prison contractor CCA and the town have sweet-talked the final stages of a deal with ICE.

But many have gone unanswered, says Di Scipio, and the town attorney, Keith Poliakoff, is keeping a tight lid on town information. 

Now Di Scipio taken his fight for transparency to the courts: He's suing the town for $1.25.
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Bill Di Scipio, ICE Detention Facility, Keith Poliakoff, lawsuit, Southwest Ranches, transparency
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Deerfield Beach

Deerfield Beach Housing Authority Attempting to Pass Possibly Unlawful Public Records Rule

By Matthew Hendley Mon., Sep. 19 2011 at 1:15 PM
Categories: Deerfield Beach, Public Records
sunshine-law.jpg
unofficiallywinslow.blogspot.com
​In what would seem like an effort to ban the often insulting and/or profanity-laden public records requests of activist Chaz Stevens, the Deerfield Beach Housing Authority voted at its last Board of Commissioners meeting to adopt a resolution outlawing "improper" requests for public records.

In the opinion of Stevens, as well as the opinion we received from an independent open-government foundation, the housing authority isn't quite authorized to impose such a barrier.

Here's what came from the minutes of the Housing Authority's August meeting:

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Tags:

Barbara Petersen, Deerfield Beach, Deerfield Beach Housing Authority, First Amendment, First Amendment Foundation, Florida, Public Records, Sunshine Law
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Great Scott!

Rick Scott's Emails Magically Go Missing

By Matthew Hendley Fri., Aug. 19 2011 at 9:47 AM
Categories: Great Scott!, Public Records
Rick-Scott-batboy.jpg
Yeah, you can find those emails next to the Columbia/HCA memos. LOL!
Gov. Rick Scott loves to tout how open his office is to records requests -- never mind the outrageous price tag -- but it gets a little tough to acquire public records when they magically disappear.

That's what happened to the St. Petersburg Times' Capitol reporter Michael C. Bender, he wrote last night, when he went looking for some emails from the governor and his transition team while he was Florida's governor-elect.

Bender says his paper requested the documents in January, and yesterday -- which was August 18 -- Scott's office decided to let him know that they're pretty sure all those emails they requested were deleted in January.

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Michael C. Bender, Peter Schorsch, Rick Scott, Sunshine Law
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Great Scott!

Rick Scott's Office Unveils a Slightly Less Ridiculous Plan for Records Requests

By Matthew Hendley Thu., Jul. 21 2011 at 11:37 AM
Categories: Great Scott!, Public Records
Rick-Scott-batboy.jpg
Information? We'll bill you for it.
​Since Gov. Rick Scott's office decided that the public and reporters had to pay a price for open government in early March, it's been a huge complaint.

They're not backtracking on charging people, but they're having a sale on getting information, according to a memo released today by the governor's office.

The memo, from the governor's communication director, Brian Burgess, says that the state will now impose "a special service charge" if someone submits a records request that takes a bit of brain capacity for a worker to fill.
 
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Brian Burgess, Public Records, Rick Scott
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Public Records

Florida's Anti-Faces of Death Law May Hide How 18-Year-Old Died in State Hands

By Matthew Hendley Mon., Jul. 18 2011 at 8:30 AM
Categories: Public Records
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cinema-suicide.com
Faces of Death: A crappy movie that makes videos of people dying very scary.
​Thanks to the Florida lawmakers' successful bid to legislate morality in the state's public records law, we may never know how 18-year-old Eric Perez died in the hands of state workers.

Perez died about a week ago at a West Palm Beach juvenile detention facility, due to either breathing problems, an enlarged heart, maybe a stroke, or after becoming "ill and psychotic" -- at least those are the different stories officials have told Perez's mother, according to the Miami Herald.

His death was recorded on video, but since HB 411 was signed into effect by the governor, the media -- and subsequently, the public -- may never get to see that video.

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Tags:

Death Video, Eric Perez, Faces of Death, Florida Public Records Law, Martin Lee Anderson, Public Records
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