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HOT!: Florida Sunshine Review: Catch up on open government news from throughout Florida ...
Open records and meetings links, resources.
June 30, 2007
Florida Sunshine Review:
 Pensacola News-Journal, by Paige St. John: Florida Department of Financial Services draws fire for pitching insurance records …
Florida Bar News, by Jan Pudlow: Manatee County court clerk’s one-year pilot program on access to court records seeks to advance public information while protecting confidential details …
Belleair Bee, by Henry Weikle: Flurry of e-mail raises questions at Indian Rocks Beach …
Bradenton Herald, by Natalie Neysa Alund: Company selling copies of property deeds at inflated costs in Manatee County …
Florida Times-Union editorial: Governor’s new commission on open government will take long-overdue look at vitality of open records, meetings …
June 27, 2007
Florida Sunshine Review:
Florida Times-Union, by Beth Kormanik: State attorney slams Jacksonville City Council regarding Sunshine Law lapses …
Wall Street Journal, column by Jason Fry: Internet availability of records raises questions about when public records are too public …
June 23, 2007
Florida Sunshine Review:
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, by Megan O’Matz: Court rules FEMA must turn over documents to Sun-Sentinel in climax of three-year effort …
Daytona Beach News-Journal editorial: New nine-member panel on open government has important job to do …
Florida Times-Union editorial: Public will be shortchanged if grand jury does not investigate Jacksonville City Council’s Sunshine Law failings …
Florida Times-Union staff report: State attorney to show the light to Jacksonville City Council regarding the Sunshine Law …
Associated Press, by Brandan Farrington: Crist honored for efforts toward open government …
Florida Times-Union editorial: Time to end the state Legislature’s “do as we say, not as we do” approach to open government meetings …
Fort Myers News-Press, by Melanie Payne: News-Press, other newspapers, prevail in public records request with FEMA …
Gainesville Sun, by Cindy Swirko: Springhills developers allege Sunshine Law violations in lawsuit against the county …
Palm Beach Post, by Dwayne Robinson: A Wellington administrator says city council members violated the Sunshine Law …
Florida Times-Union: Times-Union unveils searchable database on restaurant inspections in Northeast Florida …
June 18, 2007
Florida Sunshine Review:
Associated Press, by Bill Kaczor: Crist creates commission to keep government in the sunshine …
Fort Myers News-Press, by Aaron Deslatte: Crist creates open government reform commission …
*Orlando Sentinel, by Mark Hollis: Open government laws to get most comprehensive review in decades with new commission from Gov. Charlie Crist (*free registration required) …
Hernando Today, by Michael D. Bates: Information flow tightened on Hernando County budget …
June 17, 2007
Do you know when and where your City Council is meeting?: An investigation of Jacksonville City Council calendars, meeting notices and minutes by The Florida Times-Union depicts a culture of Sunshine Law disregard that some leading open government experts say is unlike anything they have ever seen. Reporter Beth Kormanik reported evidence of various Sunshine Law violations. Among them: questionable unnoticed meetings between members and a system of flawed announcements and minute keeping. A related editorial underscored that council culture kept city residents clueless about hundreds of one-on-one council member meetings over the years on important city business. The findings concerned the city’s top lawyer and council leadership so much that they created the Jacksonville Sunshine Law Compliance Act in response before the planned report and related editorials had appeared in the newspaper. The proposed act is likely the only one of its kind ever considered in Florida. A grand jury is considering an investigation, and a second editorial further explained why it should. Kormanik’s report included various graphics and a searchable online database for all 18 months of council member meetings reviewed by the newspaper.
Florida Sunshine Review:
Florida Times-Union, by Beth Kormanik: City Council proposes new ordinance to ensure Sunshine Law compliance in response to yet-to-be-published Times-Union reports …
Florida Times-Union, by Beth Kormanik: Times-Union investigation finds evidence of Florida Sunshine Law violations by City Council …
Florida Times-Union editorial: Jacksonville City Council culture kept public in dark about hundreds of public meetings among council members …
Florida Times-Union editorial: Public needs grand jury to investigate Sunshine Law problems at Jacksonville City Council and study other oversight issues …
Florida Times-Union, by columnist Ron Littlepage: Grand jury needs to probe council’s culture of secrecy …
Florida Times-Union, by columnist Mark Woods: What’s on the menu for Jacksonville City Council members at “City Hall Annex West?” …
First Coast News, Jacksonville, by Mark Spain: City Council probe reveals big mistakes in Jacksonville …
June 11, 2007
Superintendent’s trips questioned: Public records can help raise important questions about the practices of high-profile public leaders. Tia Mitchell of The Florida Times-Union taps school records for this story on the travels of Duval County School Superintendent Joseph Wise. The story says 43 out-of-town business trips have taken Wise out of the district 70.5 working days sinc January 2006 – or about one working day out of five. The School Board approves the trips in advance, but two board members are raising concerns about the trips, some of which were subsidized by companies that received millions in school district contracts. The public records handbook covers travel expense records of public officials on Page 360.
Florida Sunshine Review:
Associated Press, by Bill Kaczor: Hospitals seek delay on constitutional amendment that gives patients the ability to know about past mistakes made by doctors and medical facilities …
St. Petersburg Times editorial: Public deserves the info it demanded on doctors and hospitals …
Florida Today editorial: Lawmaker tax plan made in secret shuts out informed citizen debate …
Fort Myers News-Press, by Jennifer Misthal: Bonita Springs special events committee must abide by sunshine laws…
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, by Sally Apgar: Probe into ID card scheme finds 115 people got jobs using counterfeit cards with a 10-year-old Florida girl’s tolen Social Security number…
*Orlando Sentinel, by Tanya Caldwell and Steven D. Barnes: DeBary City Council minutes from recent meeting turn out to be wrong (*free registration required) …
Boca Raton News, by Dale M. King: Palm Beach clerk urges residents to guard personal data …
June 5, 2007
Florida Sunshine Review:
St. Petersburg Times, by Alex Leary: Property tax talks of state lawmakers stay a secret …
St. Petersburg Times editorial: Vague, secret deals by state lawmakers are no way to do public business …
EmeraldCoast.com: Florida Department of State adds some new material to its Florida Memory Photographic College holdings online …
WBBH Channel 2, Fort Myers, by Kate Eckman: More businesses printing credit card numbers on receipts despite federal law against it …
June 2, 2007
Records rev up:
Judicial Qualifications Commission formal investigation records: *Jim Leusner of the Orlando Sentinel on charges that Orlando Circuit Judge James C. Hauser made unwanted sexual advances toward a law school student and abused people who faced him in court (*free registration required) …
Florida Department of Environmental Protection report: Dave Heller of The Associated Press on a new state report that says more than half of gas stations required to operate on generator power under a new Florida law are not in compliance (*free registration required) …
Insurance documents: S. Brady Calhoun of the Panama City News-Herald about more public revelations in the sexual harassment claim of one of former Bay County Property Appraiser Rick Barnett’s employees …
June 1, 2007
Florida Sunshine Review:
Bradenton Herald, by Natalie Neysa Alund: Manatee County Clerk of Courts Chips Shore soon to put court records online in unique state pilot project …
Palm Beach Post, by Michael C. Bender: Bills aim to thwart I.D. theft …
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