Over the years I’ve made thousands of public records requests and conducted hundreds of audits. Unfortunately, the performance of most public agencies and state contractors that are subject to Florida’s exceptionally broad open government laws has been poor. Some of those poor performances have lead to litigation intended to enforce the public’s Right To Know.
In almost every case, those agencies and contractors have refused to acknowledge their misconduct. Sometimes their response has been to plead ignorance. Something along the lines of “we didn’t know we were subject to open government laws.” Other times their response has been indignation. They seem to believe that it is unfair for a member of the public to expect that public officials comply with the laws of this State.
Still other times, public officials will come out swinging. Since they have at their disposal our tax dollars they would rather engage in protracted and expensive litigation rather than work to correct the problems exposed by an audit conducted by FogWatch.
Recently, however, I was exceedingly surprised and pleased by the response of one agency in particular: the Sheriff of Collier County.
In a recent in-person audit I visited the offices of the Sheriff of Collier County, Kevin Rambosk, and I found the response to my public records request to be problematic. In particular I was told by one of the Sheriff’s staff members that my public records request must be made in writing.
As my readers know by now, such a demand is inconsistent with the Florida statutes and prevailing case law. So, as has been my custom for some time, I planned to file a lawsuit against the Sheriff to enforce the public’s Right to Know.
That usually happens pretty quickly. Once an audit has concluded I review the responses and in particular the denials of access. I scrutinize the facts of each case including my notes as well as audio and video recordings. If the facts of the case are very clear then I usually file suit within a few weeks. Sometimes much sooner.
In the case of the Sheriff of Collier County, however, something truly extraordinary happened. Stephanie Spell, Director of the Sheriff’s Community Outreach Division contacted me.
Apparently, a supervisor in the Sheriff’s office heard about the demand of one of her subordinates and realized there was a problem. My understanding from Ms. Spell is that upon hearing about my encounter, the suprevisor thought of FogWatch and had the offending staff member look at my picture, which is prominently placed on the blog. Once they confirmed that I was the person whose public records request was unlawfully denied they took action to make amends.
Within hours Ms. Spell had contacted me by email and acknowledged that the conduct of the Sheriff’s office was inconsistent with Florida’s Public Records Act. The Sheriff’s staff made no attempt to blame-shift, or accuse me of engaging in “gotcha” conduct. In stead, they owned what had happened and apologized. They also made a concerted effort to make records available as quickly and easily as possible.
To my knowledge, I have never had any direct contact with the Sheriff of Collier County, so I do not have an informed opinion about how he leads his deputies or his non-sworn employees. I can say, however, that I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen any agency take such quick action to correct a public records issue. Nor have I ever seen an agency take full responsibility for their actions. Frankly, it was almost breathtaking.
Here is the text of Ms. Spell’s email:
Dear Mr. Chandler,
We believe that you or a representative from your organization may have requested a public record from our agency today and that you were asked to submit your request in writing in a form that was provided to you. We also understand that the records member indicated that the written form was required. You were told incorrect information by our member. Our procedure is to provide the form if the requestor asks to submit a written list of records requested or the records member may need to write down the request to aid in record retrieval. We apologize for this action and would like you to know that the records member that you encountered has been counseled as to the correct and lawful procedure in handling public records requests. Our records members received refresher training on this matter just last week and this was taken into account when remediating the member you encountered today.
We greatly value and respect the broad open records laws of our state and believe they are in place to serve our citizens and community with the transparency of government that they deserve.
If you feel your public records request from today remains unfulfilled, I would like to facilitate that request within any lawful means.
Thank you and if I can be of further service, please do not hesitate to contact me.
This encounter and the subsequent response by Ms. Spell are instructive. First, as I pointed out to Ms. Spell in our telephone conversation, we are all human and we make mistakes. I understand that given enough opportunities we will all make mistakes and providing incorrect information is almost a certainty at some point.
Second, I pointed out to Ms. Spell that my ambition is not to catch agencies breaking the law. My goal is observe and to simply document what happens. I don’t make anyone break the law.
Third, I have no desire to be punitive when I encounter conduct that is inconsistent with Florida’s Public Records Act. I want to encourage access. Sometimes that requires litigation, but at other times my goal may be achieved through reasoned discourse.
Given the response of the Sheriff of Collier County, litigation would be pointless. The Sheriff and his staff have made it clear that they understand their obligations and want to do better and I want to help them do that.
At the conclusion of our discussion Ms. Spell invited me to contact her directly if I encounter another problem with her agency. Moreover, she was exceedingly receptive to suggestions about how to avoid problems in the future.
Of course, it would have been best if there had been no problem in the first place, but as I’ve mentioned we are all human and we all make mistakes. That is inevitable. What was so unique about this particular agency was their willingness to take immediate corrective action.
As my readers know I’ll file suit to enforce Florida’s Public Records Act at the drop of a hat – and I’ll drop the hat. But when an agency is clearly trying to do the right thing I want to be first in line to sing their praises. I want to be a resource and not simply be an adversary. I just wish more agencies would follow the lead of the Sheriff of Collier County. When you’re wrong, admit it, correct the problem and move on.
That is the mature, responsible response to mistakes. It also avoids litigation and builds the public’s trust. Someone seems to get that. Finally.
Great work and hats off to that agency. You should make copies and had them in with your request if denied the first time. I believe that a few of your other winning lawsuits should be available to them and the expected outcome if you file a lawsuit. Lastly I would also state to that agency that if you are forced to go that far you have an obligation to the taxpayers of that community to expose the amount of needless taxpayers money to pursue this case knowing the outcome. As always ….FOLLOW THE MONEY
Well sorry to toss a tiny wet blanket. I LOVE that one of us commands respect. Thank you Joel. But if that were ME they’d just say: yeah … and months later still NOTHING. Had that experience with HCSO over who was selling HCSO records for profit and who was removing data from the website selectively. Had that battle with SPCollege. Still not over. But Rouson is still intimidating me even after he and Mia Jones played cat and mouse with the selection and he is to be the new Dem leader. Rouson is a REPUBLICAN. His mother told me so herself …. their family will jump to the side that will allow them to have power. Nothing wrong with that unless you have ethics and morals.
So all I’m saying is that until any person anywhere can walk in anywhere in Florida and make a request and not have some pretender lie or stymie them Joel’s work will never be done. Personally I hope he becomes fabulously wealthy for his work.
I have to agree… A fail is still a fail. If not for your website, you would have left that sheriff’s office with nothing.
And that may be my own fault. I have yet to file a lawsuit which appears to be how Joel commands respect. Good on you, Joel !!!
Great example of the system working. Kudos to Collier So and both the identifying the problem and taking steps to correct it. Glad to hear Joel’s name is getting out there and agencies are aware of what he is doing.
http://www.Lookingthruwolfeyes.com/47.html
I need to know who took my animals to animal control., there hiding all records. there saying strays. bullshit. look at this page. i need help. the person who clocked in at 4 am, was the ones that stole my animals from my yard and came into my home. animal control refused to give me records.every time ive asked.S.O.S.
352-544-8122 OR 352-293-5866
An initial fail must still be labeled as a “fail.” If they don’t run and get the records for you, or treat you in a courteous manner, they have failed as public servants.
Until the day where all citizens are treated the same — whether or not they have a website — public information will be in jeopardy.
This is a statement I wholly agree with. And worse, many are covering things up not innocently avoiding compliance. Their reaction is WHO are you and WHY are you after us? Not correct behavior. They are just ‘we the people’ with the jobs they are performing incorrectly and many times with bad intent.
To be clear: I very much appreciate Joel’s approach. His main power is that many times he is not personally involved. He has involved himself personally with a part of him which lies fallow in many Americans. BUT he is not personally involved in the pain caused by the agencies, albeit Joel ‘gets it’. In my opinion his approach can almost be termed ‘iron fist in velvet glove’.
“Third, I have no desire to be punitive when I encounter conduct that is inconsistent with Florida’s Public Records Act. I want to encourage access. Sometimes that requires litigation, but at other times my goal may be achieved through reasoned discourse.
Given the esponse of the Sheriff of Collier County, litigation would be pointless. The Sheriff and his staff have made it clear that they understand their obligations and want to do better and I want to help them do that.”
And it works for him. Others have their lives on hold due to these shenanigans. And they know exactly what they are doing to the person. In many cases they are driving the person broke or into the system and in the case of the firefighter’s widow possibly hoping to split a profit stonewalling the victim.
I am positive that the Financial Aid dept at HCC Dale Mabry was issuing loans and other to students who had no interest and/or whom they fabricated and splitting it amongst themselves. They pay off others to enable this.
And so, when this same type behavior revealed itself at St Pete College a near decade later with a different degree I was in a position to spot it quickly. The man who perpetrated it has worked at every ‘big bell student loan’ co. where they went out in handcuffs. Now he’s at SPC and has the whole nine yards covering up for him. Imagine anyone in FL being able to get over the head of Rouson and Scott to get this information out and get help. So what they did was hold my degree hostage when I informed them I knew what they were doing and I would not participate. Their President Bill Law is fully aware of the situation and is complicit. Every honorable entity still involved in student loans and student financial aid advised me to contact the College President. They said the College President will not want it to go to the lengths where you have to report it and get the college in hot water (because it will) He then called me a liar and had his attorney continue to refuse my requests for the records proving what I say. Like here, she fulfilled ONE request which was absolutely harmless, mainly just SPC employees backstabbing me in an internal communication process. Haven’t even read the whole thing. But the pertinent records are still not disclosed. She no longer replies to email. THIS is what the avg person gets or like myself, a person who has been targeted by Rouson who is probably doing the dirty work of someone else in order to promote himself as he was in serious financial trouble not long back and funny how the tables have turned. Every person that involved themself in my matter OR whom “President” of SPC Bill Law involved, had the same faces staring back from their facebook. Now Rouson is the Dem leader incoming. HMMMMMMMMM He is in a position to make many lives hard or easy. Go have a look at SPC campus Gibbs. You’ll see what I mean even as a novice. You’ll have to sneak over there because they have a little spy network that follows one around and that is NO JOKE. I took down all the license tags one of which was meant to indicate their congressional or state rep. Another facebook friend. The dirty power circle.
Joel you should consider getting a twitter. I know they say it’s passe’ but I have to disagree. Many powerful young indy journalists and others are using it. You can use it in any manner you wish. Trying to get a bigger audience to your audits or reporting afterwards. Just a thought