Migrant workers find jobs easily in Polk County and across Florida: Federal census records and state enforcement records help Diane Lacey Allen of the Lakeland Ledger report this first of a six-part series on the dilemma of the illegal immigrant labor in Polk County. Among the findings of this series: Polk's Mexican-born population is exploding, state and federal agencies that monitor migrant labor are struggling to keep up, fake IDs are rampant and farm labor contractors are at the center of a political storm on illegal immigration. This weeklong series is recommended reading for anyone interested in illegal immigration.

More hit records:
Congressional travel records: Amy Parnes of the Stuart News on travel of Treasure Coast congressional officials and staffs paid for by trade groups and non-profit organizations …
Meeting agenda: Rich McKay of the Orlando Sentinel on the Orange County's Citizen Review Board preparing to flex its unused muscle and subpoena a deputy sheriff for the first time in its history …
Federal and state case files, state corporation records, state lobbyist records: Diane Lacey Allen of the Lakeland Ledger on the different paths the U.S. Department of Labor and the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation take in enforcing migrant labor laws …
Civil court records: Mike Hoyem of the Fort Myers News-Press on a Fort Myers Realtor suing absentee property owners to force them to abide by their contracts and sell land for far less money than they'd like …
City spending records: Sandra Mathers of the Orlando Sentinel about Apoka city officials buying generators during last year’s hurricane season and lending or selling most of them to city employees, a violation of a city policy dealing with surplus inventory …

Florida Sunshine Review:
Palm Beach Post, by Susan Spencer-Wendel: Proseuctors seek return of Limbaugh’s medicals
Orlando Sentinel, by Vicki McClure: State keeps FCAT scoring a secret (*free registration required) …

May 20, 2005

FCAT reading scores on the decline: Public records are sometimes the talk of the day, even though folks doing the talking likely don’t realize they are speaking of public records. Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test scores obtained by Kim McCoy Vann of the Tallahassee Democrat indicate the state’s 10th graders are falling behind in reading. The story notes that “only 32 percent of 10th-graders statewide, down from 37 percent four years ago, are proficient in reading.” High schoolers must pass the 10th-grade FCAT to graduate. The test results are a mixed bag for schools in the Tallahassee region. Students in Leon and Wakulla counties continue to outperform students around the state, but Gadsden, Jefferson, Franklin and Liberty students fall below the state average, with only 8 percent of Gadsden and Jefferson sophs reading at or above grade level, according to the story. The public records handbook profiles the Florida Department of Education home page on Page 177.

125 offenders live in Broward ZIP code 33311: Sex offender stories are hot in Florida these days. Jamie Malernee and John Maines of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel did a computer-assisted analysis of sexual predators and offenders to find that with “the exception of an area of west Florida that is home to a sex offender treatment facility, more sexual offenders and predators live in 33311 than in any other ZIP code in the state.” Most of those 125 children victimized children, with the story revealing the most common charge was a lewd and lascivious act against a child under 16, followed by sexual battery of a child under 12. “All the convicted sex offenders live within two miles of at least one school, some as many as seven schools. (Children who live within two miles of a school don't ride a bus, but walk or find their own ride.),” the story says. As concerns about this issue heighten, it’s no surprise that some cities are boosting buffers to keep sexual predators and offenders farther from children. Jacksonville isn’t in the story but is among the cities also pushing such a move. The public records handbook profiles the state’s sexual predator and offender database on Page 341.

May 18, 2005

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Florida Sunshine Review:
Associated Press: State enhances its sexual predator/offender database to allow searching within miles in addition to Zip code …
Palm Beach Post, by Alan Gomez: Legislature adds 22 new exemptions to state’s public records law …
Fort Myers News-Press, by Alison Kepner: Fort Myers mayor’s speaking ban for meetings brings a loud response …
Fort Myers News-Press, by Alison Kepner: Fort Myers mayor bans public comment on non-agenda items at council meetings …
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, by Paula McMahon: Pompano officials face fines for secret breakfast meeting with Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne …
WCJB TV-20 News, Gainesville, by Heather Sorentrue: Gainesville police detectives are looking into how a children's videotape from a public library wound up full of pornography …

May 16, 2005

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100-mph drivers often get just a slap on the wrist: Public records provide ways of looking at an issue like nothing else can. Scott Powers of the Orlando Sentinel reviewed speeding tickets for drivers caught going past 100 mph to discover “the vast majority of high rollers last year avoided getting traffic-violation points attached to their license records, usually by attending traffic school.” Check this out: “Only 99 of the 342 people caught driving 100 mph last year paid the full fines for a speeding ticket ($305 at least), took the points on their driving records and had their insurance companies advised of their behavior.” The Sentinel based its story on evaluation of more than 300 speeders caught going beyond 100 mph. Among the key findings: “Young white men get the most 100-mph tickets. Nearly three-quarters are younger than 30, nearly two-thirds are white, and eight of nine are male.” The online posting includes a graphic showing where these fast and furious speeders got caught. The public records handbook profiles local traffic tickets from circuit court clerk’s offices on Page 354.

Where is a sex offender to live?: Brady Dennis and Matthew Waite of the St. Petersburg Times analyzed state sex offender statistics to find that “9 of 10 people in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties live within a half-mile of a sex offender.” About 2,600 offenders live virtually everywhere within the three counties. The story examines where sex offenders are supposed to go, who is willing to take them in and how worried neighbors should be about them. The murders of youths Jessica Lunsford and Sarah Lunde have heightened concerns about sexual predators and offenders statewide as “residents have inundated the state's online database that tracks sex offenders. Phone calls to the sex offender hotline have tripled. Sex offenders' photos are popping up on street signs and telephone poles.” Meanwhile, various local governments are trying to make it harder for sexual offenders to blend into the crowd. The public records handbook profiles the state’s sexual predator and offender database on Page 341.

May 13, 2005

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Records roll call:
Civil lawsuit: Anthony Colarossi of the Orlando Sentinel on an Orlando psychiatrist suing the Orlando Sentinel and its parent Tribune Co., claiming the newspaper published "false and defamatory" statements in a pair of articles and hurt the doctor's reputation …
City financial audit: Mark J. Crawford of the Bradford County Telegraph about the mixed bag findings from a Starke city audit …
Letter to the city manager: Scott Wyland of the Daytona Beach News-Journal on state investigators determining that no state money was misused in a $248,000 dredging project done on the city's southside three years ago…

Florida Sunshine Review:
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, by Mark Hollis: Lawmakers dilute voters’ demand to see records on medical mistakes …
The Associated Press: Six news media outlets fight jury rules in terror trial …
Tallahassee Democrat, by Nancy Cook Lauer: Secret meetings with MCI alleged in connection with state tech projects …
The Associated Press: Judge OKs public release of evidence in Payne Stewart crash trial …
Insurance Journal: Matrix II database would tap into Florida insurance customer records …
South Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial: Meeting between Pompano Beach officials and sheriff may have violated the Sunshine Law …
Boca Raton News, by Dale M. King: Boca Raton may post sexual offender information on local cable TV …
Florida Today, by Patrick Peterson: Real ID act sparks real concerns about hackers and identity theft …

May 11, 2005

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Florida puts stop work order database online: State public records offered on the Web are constantly evolving. The South Florida Business Journal reports the state “has launched an online database it said will continually update employers who have been issued stop work orders.” The database will be updated daily and can be searched by specific employer, month and county. The state’s Division of Worker’s Compensation issues when an employer has been found not to have arranged workers’ comp coverage for its employees. But, the story notes, “stop work orders may also go to employers who materially understate or conceal payroll or materially misrepresent or conceal employee duties to avoid proper classification for premium calculations.” The state issued 1,791 stop work orders during the last fiscal year, the story said. Click here to check out the database for yourself.

The records roll on:
Inspector general report: Carol Marbin Miller of the Miami Herald on a Florida Department of Children and Families report that says Florida's oldest and largest state psychiatric hospital has everything but doctors …
Federal bridge crash records: Duane Marsteller of the Bradenton Herald on the likelihood of another bridge disaster similar to 25 years ago with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge …
Criminal court records: Ihosvani Rodriguez of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel how taxpayers are footing the bill for a middle school student’s murder trial …

Florida Sunshine Review:
First Amendment Center, by David L. Hudson Jr.: A Florida attorney has sued the Florida Bar because he says the Bar is trying to squelch his free speech …
Leesburg Daily Commercial, by Michelle L. Start.: Agenda reviews by Lake County School Board do not violate Sunshine Law, school board attorney says …
St. Petersburg Times editorial: FDLE officials say concerns over its computer database system are overblown, but there are reasons to be apprehensive …

May 9, 2005

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Gators to pay Meyer average of $2 million: Public records can factor prominently in the world of sports reporting. The contract for new University of Florida football coach Galen Meyer obtained by David Jones of Florida Today shows the Gators are paying Meyer $2 million a year. Notes the story: “The longer he stays, the more he will be rewarded – capped off by a package worth $2.35 million in 2011, including a $600,000 longevity incentive.” The contract also includes a $500,000 signing bonus, $100,000 for family education expenses, and two medium-priced cars with insurance for Meyer and his wife. He also gets 12 complimentary tickets for each home game. “Meyer's contract also includes bonues such as $250,000 for winning a national title, $75,000 for winning an SEC title and $50,000 for being named the Associated Press national coach of the year (which he was in 2004 at Utah before leaving for the Gators' program).”

Florida Sunshine Review:
St. Petersburg Times, by Carrie Johnson: Government in the sunshine finds partly cloudy skies in Legislature’s annual session …
Palm Beach Post editorial: Public comment period begins on Supreme Court Committee on Privacy and Court Records draft report …
Leesburg Daily Commercial, by Michelle L. Start: Lake County agenda sessions raise open government concerns …
Fort Myers News-Press, by Jeff Cull: News-Press files motion in federal court seeking to force the Federal Emergency Management Agency to explain why it is withholding the names and addresses of people who received hurricane grants …

May 4, 2005

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Grand jury faults city on Shipyards: Public records sometimes generate the biggest local news of the day. A grand jury report and related written responses drive this story by Mary Kelli Palka of The Florida Times-Union about what went wrong with a huge downtown waterfront development in Jacksonville. The grand jury found no criminal wrong doing but ripped the city for crafting a shoddy contract with developer TriLegacy Group and failing to adequately monitor progress involving the $36.5 million the developer received to build city improvements as part of its private development. The findings chaffed former Mayor John Delaney, the University of North Florida president who had pushed for the deal during his time as mayor. In a written response to the report, Delaney said: “Those who actually misspent the money are praised, and those of us who criticized the conduct of TriLegacy are described as disingenuous, maligning, ludicrous, unfair and reckless.” No PDF of the actual report is posted, but a report highlights link accompanies the story.

Florida Sunshine Review:
Jacksonville Daily Record, by Bradley Parsons: Duval County court clerk sees paperless future for court records …
Lake City Reporter, by Justin Lang: Local law enforcement steps up efforts to track sexual predators …
Palm Beach Post, by Stephen Pounds: State identity theft bill heads to governor’s desk …
*Orlando Sentinel, by columnist Mark Pino: State sex offender Web site has a dangerous gap (*free registration required) …
*Naples Daily News editorial: Bonita Springs city attorney should blaze trail of openness, sunshine … (*free registration required)
Palm Beach Post editorial: Limbaugh court loss on records no threat to privacy …

May 2, 2005

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Who pays for trips taken by Congress?: Public records can answer big questions about where public officials travel and how they pay to get there. Five years of travel records reviewed by Tamara Lytle of the Orlando Sentinel show special-interest groups “bankrolled more than 200 trips for Central Florida lawmakers and their congressional staffs to such choice locales as Paris, London, Antigua, Napa Valley and Palm Springs." The travel – all legal under House rules – happened courtesy of “a roll call of powerful special interests, including the payday-loan industry, railroads and others with business before the lawmakers' committees.” Corrine Brown, a Jacksonville Democrat and a member of the committee that oversees railroad issues, topped the seven lawmakers the Sentinel monitored in trips. Those included visits resort locations such as Palm Springs and Monterey, Calif., and Scottsdale, Ariz., with the Association of American Railroads, a trade group that represents freight companies, the story says. Critics say “the system is corrupt and needs to change because it fuels a lavish life of entitlement for lawmakers, gives wealthy private interests special access to government and further alienates an already cynical public.” The public records handbook profiles state and local travel records of public officials on Page 360.

More hit records:
Video taped interviews from court records: Janine A. Zeitlin of the Naples Daily News on revelations from 12 hours of videotaped interviews about a former Naples priest in the Catholic Church who is accused of abusing children …
Boat registration fee records, state boat registration reports: Nick Mason of the Fort Myers News-Press on a pot of unspent marine revenues in Manatee County …
Divorce records, court records, police reports, personnel records and more: Valerie Kalfrin of The Tampa Tribune on the tragic demise of twins who were former Tampa police officers …
FCAT test scores: Greg Giles of the Venice Gondolier Sun on the challenges of school officials in making sense of Florida Comprehensive Annual Test scores …

Florida Sunshine Review:
Tallahassee Democrat, by Andre Shannon: State’s sex offender Web site gets overhauled …
Daytona Beach News-Journal, by John Bozzo: Political forum lets public tune in …
WFLA-News Channel 8, by Mark Douglas: Hospitals miss deadline for having infection data on the Web for public …
*Naples Daily News, by Jeremy Cox: Vance insists meetings did not violate the state’s Sunshine Laws (*free registration required) …
DM Review magazine, by Lou Agosta: Data warehousing lessons learned …
*Naples Daily News editorial: Why should the Bonita Springs City Council listen to developers outside of the public’s earshot (*free registration required)? …