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Joe's Hit Records
August 31, 2003 
August 29, 2003 City settles praying lawsuit: Confidential settlements in court cases are, by nature, confidential. But they become public records in Florida when state or local government agencies are parties to the case. A public records request enabled Paul Pinkham of The Florida Times-Union to reveal the settlement details involving a former Duval County jail inmate who sued the city of Jacksonville and a drug treatment provider in U.S. District Court over the right not to pray at the end of a treatment session. Court records indicated the parties had reached a mediated settlement to avoid trial with the terms deemed confidential. But city records obtained through the records request showed the woman will receive $37,500, with the city paying $6,250 and the treatment provider covering the rest. The story says the woman was in jail in 2001 after violating probation on a prescription drug charge and was enrolled in a drug treatment program. “She refused to take part in a prayer circle at the end of the treatment session, resulting in discipline and loss of gain time,” the story notes. The public records handbook profiles civil lawsuit case files on Page 82 and criminal court records starting on Page 103.
August 28, 2003 What, again? Pines ticket a $27 million Lotto winner: Records from the Florida Lottery help Joe Kollin of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel document Pembroke Pines’ knack for producing lottery winners. The records show the South Florida town sold winning six-digit tickets four times in 11 years, including the most recent drawing for $27 million. The latest big winner beat 22,957,480-to-1 odds. The jackpot is the biggest yet in a lucky streak that started in 1992 with a ticket sale that split a $5.7 million jackpot. About 11,000 retailers sell lottery tickets in Florida, the story says. For details on information available from lottery retailer application records, see Page 277 of the public records handbook.
August 27, 2003 Officer fights for job after 7
complaints: Police internal affairs investigation records
figure prominently in Jim Schoettler's report in The Florida Times-Union about complaints involving a Jacksonville police officer. The officer missed seeing a knife sticking from a wall in a domestic dispute call. In another instance, he told two women at a Jewish community center how the world hated Jews. But the last straw for his bosses, records show, was when the officer put a woman in jail for tossing a half-eaten egg roll from her car window into traffic. The public records handbook profiles police internal affairs investigation reports on Page 310.
August 26, 2003 Audit: DCF backlog project left kids at risk: Internal audit records obtained by Carol Marbin at the Miami Herald indicate the state Department of Children and Families effort to curb its backlog of incomplete child abuse investigations may have left thousands of children ''at risk of harm.'' The story says child welfare investigators closed nearly 30,000 open abuse and neglect reports from last September until about June with the number of backlogged cases now reduced to about 2,000. However, internal DCF records show “that, among a representative sample of 2,682 of the closed cases, 13.6 percent statewide appeared to leave children ‘at risk of harm’ or, at the very least, made it impossible to determine from the paperwork whether the children were safe.” The story says children in South Florida were left at the greatest risk with DCF districts that include Miami, Key West and West Palm Beach posting some of the worst investigative casework. Auditing records profiled in the public records handbook include state agency inspector general records on Page 251 and Florida Auditor General audit reports on Page 162.
August 25, 2003 County to map sex offenders and bus stops: This is a public records-driven story ripe for reporting throughout Florida. The Orlando Sentinel says that Volusia County school district officials intend to create a database that will let them pinpoint where convicted sex offenders live in relation to school bus stops. Administrators recently moved a bus stop after learning that an Orange City stop was in front of a registered sex offender's house. This is a scenario that could exist throughout Florida (see the Fort Myers case under the “classics” section of this list) because no laws exist to require school systems or anyone else to check whether sexual predators and offenders live near bus stops. I’ve been writing editorials for three years urging lawmakers to close this dangerous loophole. The legislation to address the problem by Jacksonville State Rep. Dick Kravitz passed the House again this year but died in the Senate. He vows to try again. Meanwhile, Jenny LaCoste of the Pensacola News Journal reports on a related issue
brewing in her community. Parents can find out where sexual predators and offenders live through the state’s sexual offender/predator database
on the Web. The public records handbook profiles the database on Page 341.
August 24, 2003 Unlicensed doctors elude law's sharpened scalpel: A review of criminal court cases by Casey Woods and Adriana Cordovi of the Miami Herald shows a majority of nabbed unlicensed doctors and dentists are getting off easy in Miami-Dade County despite a new state law three years ago creating stiffer penalties. The paper found that those prosecuted in most of the 15 cases that have been resolved received probation and fines at best. No one got the mandatory minimum of a year in jail, and only two people were sentenced to imprisonment. The cases “range from a ‘doctor’ injecting sugar water into aching joints, to botched plastic surgeries that left women permanently scarred.” Notes the story: “Legislators and prosecutors trade blame for the light sentences. Legislators say they have provided the tools to punish these crimes; prosecutors say the law is useless without money for a larger staff to bolster the overloaded justice system.” The public records handbook reviews criminal court records starting on Page 103.
August 22, 2003 FDLE arrests former state official: Arrest reports can include details from various types of records used to justify the criminal charges against someone. A lengthy arrest affidavit drives this story by Bill Cotterell of The Tallahassee Democrat about the arrest of former Florida Parole Commission Chairman Jimmie Lee Henry on several charges of cheating on expense accounts and falsifying time sheets. The story notes that in “page after page” a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigator outlined how Henry’s “cellular-phone records indicated he was making and receiving calls in one place – usually Tallahassee – while his mileage, hotel and meal reimbursement records claimed he was on state business somewhere else.” Other revelations included the use of a state charge card to buy airline tickets for a friend, expenses from a trip to Atlanta for a daughter’s college graduation and charges to the state for time not worked. Journalism and other instructors interested in sharing another take on this story can refer to Lucy Morgan’s piece in the St. Petersburg Times. Both stories reference a related preliminary audit this week that indicated, among other things, questionable personal purchases using state funds. The public records handbook profiles arrest reports on Page 23, telephone records on Page 350, travel expense records on Page 360 and Florida Auditor General audit reports on Page 162.
August 21, 2003 FSU officials tried to broker rape deal: E-mails of state and local government officials can provide important documentation of behind-the-scenes maneuvering. A Feb. 27 e-mail obtained by Rich McKay and Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel shows how Florida State University officials tried to broker a deal to keep a rape allegation concerning a football player out of the courts and out of the news. The school’s president talked with students involved in the case, and the e-mail revealed a school vice president tried to mediate a deal between the player and his accuser before the criminal case was resolved. Under the deal, the school tried to get the woman not to press charges in exchange for the player getting counseling and leaving school for six months (but he would have been back in time for the fall football season). The e-mail stipulated "all parties agree to keep this matter confidential" and "not pursue any further legal action." The player was recently acquitted in the case. This story is also a good example of how public records can factor into a sports-related story. The public records handbook addresses e-mail records on Page 140.
August 20, 2003 Firm can’t document work for study: Documentation of government work – or lack of it – can speak volumes about public works projects and the firms involved with them. Lee Melsek of the Fort Myers News-Press reports that an Orlando engineering firm “that billed the town of Fort Myers Beach $40,342 for a bridge study can’t show what it did for the 427.5 hours of work.” Invoices show seven firms billed the town fees ranging from $45 to $130 an hour. The results: A 16-page report that included some diagrams of Estero Bay and Fort Myers Beach pulled from the Internet. Records also show the company made three phone calls totaling $6.41 and downloaded some U.S. Army Corps of Engineers guidelines off the Web. “No other documentation has been provided,” the story says. Invoices are covered in the public records handbook as part of the entries on bids and contracts (Page 33) and checks and warrants issued by government agencies (Page 72).
August 19, 2003 Broward defense attorney investigated for alleged payoff to murder witness: Police and court records aided Paula McMahon of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in this story about a police investigation into allegations regarding whether a local attorney and his legal assistant paid off a witness to help their client in a high-profile murder case. In a search warrant, detectives accuse the attorney of setting up a deal to pay the witness to change his story regarding the attorney’s client, who faces a first-degree murder charge in the 2001 death of a man at a storage warehouse. The assistant is under scrutiny for any role she might have had in passing along the money. If the allegations are proved, the story notes, the two could face criminal charges of bribery, contempt of court or interfering with a criminal investigation, and the attorney could face disbarment. The public records handbook profiles search warrants on Page 340. Criminal court records are covered starting on Page 103.
August 17, 2003 Critical flaws in shuttles loom as potential disaster: Kevin Spear and Jim Leusner of the Orlando Sentinel reviewed NASA's hazard-evaluation studies and almost 2,000 malfunction reports from the 113 shuttle flights to pinpoint a half-dozen hardware systems that have repeatedly faltered or failed during flight. The systems are all critical to successful launches, orbits and landings. Notes the story: “And like the foam that led to Columbia's breakup over Texas on Feb. 1, and the booster joint O-rings that doomed Challenger in 1986, all six systems have defied NASA's various efforts to fix them.” The story looks at what could lead to the next disaster as NASA prepares the remaining three shuttles for flight.
August 16, 2003 31 lobbyists promote project: Local and state lobbyist registration records drive this story by Brittany Wallman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about the lobbying power behind the controversial Palazzo Las Olas condo development at Fort Lauderdale Beach. With 31 registered lobbyists, the project “has the distinction of registering more lobbyists than any other entity since the city started requiring registration in 2000.” In addition, the story points out “Walt Disney World has 17 registered lobbyists working in Tallahassee, and Anheuser-Busch Companies has five, according to the state's list. The Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers registered 13 lobbyists. The sugar industry, though, topped Palazzo with 33 lobbyists for this year's legislative session.” Fort Lauderdale’s city lobbyist list is online. So is Florida’s list of registered legislative and executive branch lobbyists. For more on lobbyist registration records and the details they offer, see Page 271 of the public records handbook.
August 15, 2003 Bush, Horne introduce accountability rules for private schools: New policies can result in new public records. Craig Walker of The Associated Press reports that private schools in Florida receiving money from the state’s various scholarship programs will soon have to generate a five-page form for parents with details about the school and its leadership. The forms will be used to establish a compliance database by Aug. 27 and will include information about financial stability in some cases and whether the schools teachers are fingerprinted and subject to criminal background checks. The change is in response, the story notes, “to the criticism of some legislators, who have wanted more accountability after it was discovered that some money went to an Islamic school co-founded by a professor accused of supporting terrorism.” For details on the state’s educator certification process and related records, see Page 138 of the public records handbook.
August 14, 2003 They tunnel into store for shoes, Bucs jerseys: This unusual break-in story by Tamara Lush of the St. Petersburg Times reminds us what a dirty endeavor crime can be. Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies are still looking for the accomplices of a man who plodded through a self-dug tunnel 40 feet long and about 5 feet wide to reach his prize: shoes and jerseys worth thousands of dollars from a sporting goods store. It took at least a week to dig out the tunnel through the dirt and sand. Authorities charged a 43-year-old homeless man with burglary and grand theft in this grimy crime. Records from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement showed he had a lengthy arrest history dating to 1980. For more on criminal background checks, see Page 101 in the public records handbook. The handbook profiles arrest records on Page 23.
August 13, 2003 Orange schools skip fire drills: Obscure public records can bring important issues to light – and sometimes prompt a story seldom explored in the news. Mary Shanklin of The Orlando Sentinel reviewed school fire drill records to reveal that more than a third of 162 Orange County public schools failed to perform the minimum fire drills required during the last school year. The story notes that 18 schools missed more than one drill and three schools skipped the mandatory drills during the school year but held them during the summer when most students were gone. Twenty-seven campuses also failed to have severe-weather drills, the story says. “The lack of fire drills is the latest in an ongoing controversy about poor fire-safety measures at Orange County schools. In recent months, the district has come under sharp criticism for failing to address hundreds of fire-code violations cited by local and state fire marshals.” The school district is working on a new system that will alert district administrators when a school has missed one of the required fire drills. The public records handbook profiles fire safety inspection records on Page 151.
August 12, 2003 Arnold's finances tell a shrewd tale: The buzz blares on about the king-size financial portfolio revealed by action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger in disclosure forms filed as part of his candidacy for California governor. George Avalos of the Contra Costa Times in California reports the public records chart a vast financial empire
spanning “100-plus ventures – 19 of which are valued at more than $1 million – that include individual stocks, managed stock accounts, private investment funds, venture funds, bonds, a number of direct stakes in operating businesses, and even a high-end mutual fund company overseen by Nobel laureates." Discover a connection between Schwarzenegger and Florida public records by plugging his last name into the search page of www.myfloridacounty.com. For details on financial disclosures required of Florida public office holders and seekers, see Page 121 of the public records handbook.
August 11, 2003 Accident personalizes debate over older drivers: Driver license records and traffic crash records provide important details for John Henderson’s story in The Naples Daily News about a 92-year-old driver with vision and hearing problems who nearly killed a 23-year-old woman in a July crash. The crash exemplifies the kind of accident lawmakers hope new licensing requirements coming Jan. 1 for drivers over 80 will help prevent. In this particular crash, officials charged the elderly driver with causing the accident and not wearing his required corrective lenses. State records designated him as a “safe driver” who had no tickets or accidents since obtaining his Florida license in 1981. The man has renewed his license by mail since that time, a practice that will be limited for older drivers under the new law. Doctors initially gave the crash victim a 10 percent chance of living. She’s now recovering from open-heart surgery and feels lucky to be alive. The man who caused the accident has given up driving, the story says. The public records handbook profiles driver license records starting on Page 134. Traffic crash reports are covered on Page 357.
August 10, 2003 Rolls swollen with voters who haven't cast a ballot: Voter registration records enable Beth Reinhard of the Miami Herald to explore how registered voters who haven’t cast a ballot raise taxpayer costs and the risk of fraud in Broward and Dade counties. The Herald found 25 percent of the people on the rolls – or 475,069 registered voters – haven’t bothered to vote once. Officials blame the state’s motor voter law, which made registration easier but made harder the purging of "deadwood” voters from the rolls. “In a random sample of 100 of these no-show voters, the Herald found people eligible to vote in Broward who had moved to Ocala, New York and as far away as Spain. One so-called active voter is a Coconut Creek man who died last year. Another sits in jail for violating probation on an armed robbery conviction – a felony that should have knocked him off the rolls.” Legislation aimed at cleaning up the rolls is two years behind next year’s deadline, although at least one of the counties hasn’t been very aggressive in trying to pursue voters who left town with their voting cards, the story says. This is the first day of a two-day Herald presentation on this issue. The public records handbook profiles voter registration records starting on Page 372.
August 8, 2003 Lawmaker threatens suit over vouchers: Public records requests can originate from many sources, including elected public officials who generate public records themselves. Kimberly Miller of The Palm Beach Post reports that Democrat State Rep. Susan Bucher is threatening to sue the state Department of Education for failing to respond to her public records request about corporate tax credit vouchers. Poor students receive the vouchers to attend private schools. Bucher asked for program details on July 11, including a list of schools participating, the number of students taking the vouchers, and a copy of the rules that regulate the program. “Bucher said she wants the information about the tax credit vouchers so that she can write legislation to improve the accountability of the program,” the story says. It also says messages left with the DOE for this story weren’t returned by deadline. Written public records requests become public records themselves unless exempted by law. The public records handbook profiles records requests on Page 332 and provides a sample public records request letter on Page 432. You can also find a sample request form letter on this Web site.
August 7, 2003 Auditor finds financial problems in Fort Lauderdale, but no crisis: Annual audits are important for evaluating the vitality of government finances and determining whether officials spent taxpayer funds appropriately. The public records fuel this story by Brittany Wallman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about Fort Lauderdale’s declining financial health. “The audit noted that reserves have dwindled in the past two years from $9 million to $4 million, and city finance officials say they will be down to almost zero when the current budget year closes out in two months,” the story says. The audit, part of a comprehensive annual financial report that cities and counties must generate, identified several problems, including the violation of employee leave policy. But auditors found no evidence of fraud or broken laws. The audit did suggest, however, that an independent audit committee be created to oversee how taxpayer money is spent. The public records handbook profiles comprehensive annual financial reports and what they reveal starting on Page 19. The handbook covers budgets starting on Page 53.
August 6, 2003 Top brass drive snazzy seized vehicles: Records from the Tampa Police Department help Brady Dennis of the St. Petersburg Times explore how the department and its top-ranking officers use flashy vehicles confiscated under Florida's Contraband Forfeiture Act. The law allows authorities to seize property used during the commission of a felony or bought with criminal proceeds. “Records show that TPD currently has 43 seized vehicles in use, including five Lincoln Navigators, a pair of Ford Expeditions, a BMW and a Lexus,” the story says. Many police departments use the seized vehicles in crime prevention programs and in undercover drug work. But, the story notes, “unlike most departments, it lets the top brass and others who rarely work street investigations drive confiscated vehicles.” For instance, Tampa police Chief Bennie Holder drives a 2001 Chevy Tahoe worth $38,000 that was once operated by a man accused of drug dealing. Tampa cops see no problem with the practice, although some other departments have different views on whether it is appropriate for their agencies. The public records handbook covers vehicle use and maintenance records on Page 368.
August 5, 2003 Man killed in motorcycle crash: Driving records can speak volumes about a person’s behavior as this story by Susan Jacobson of The Orlando Sentinel attests. A man who crashed his motorcycle into another vehicle and died after refusing to pull over for police had a driving record six pages long. It included “convictions for speeding, operating a motor vehicle in an unsafe condition or with improper equipment, driving while his license was suspended and driving without insurance. His license was suspended July 17 and again July 28 for failing to pay tickets, state motor vehicle records show.” The story also notes that records show the divorced father of a 4-year-old daughter would not have had his drivers license reinstated until he paid child support that was delinquent as of July 30. An Osceola County sheriff’s deputy had tried to pull the man over because he was speeding. The state’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles maintains driving records on Florida motorists. The public records handbook details how to obtain the records and what they have to offer starting on Page 134. Local traffic court records are profiled starting on Page 354.
August 4, 2003 Character training riles DCF workers: Paige St. John has a story in Florida Today about mandatory character training for employees of the state’s Department of Children and Family Services. A state purchase order shows the department paid $8,305 for training materials used during a one-hour lecture July 25 on dependability. Some workers have criticized the training, provided to DCF by the Oklahoma City-based Character Training Institute, as a waste of time and money. At least 1,750 agency workers in the Orlando region are receiving the curriculum. This story also draws upon federal Internal Revenue Service records to provide background information about the non-profit group behind the training. The public records handbook explores purchase orders starting on Page 72 while bids and contracts are covered starting on Page 33.
August 2, 2003 Sneakin' toward the weekend, workers fill roadways: Public records can help us confirm suspicions in some cases. Matthew Waite of the St. Petersburg Times analyzed traffic count records over a 5-year period
along four major Tampa Bay area commuter routes to determine that “rush hour on a Friday comes much earlier – as early as 3 p.m. – compared to the middle of the week.” The story examines the social changes behind the fading framework of the 8-5 work schedule and what it all means to life in the Tampa Bay area. The public records handbook profiles the Florida Department of Transportation records used for this story on Page 353.
August 1, 2003 Road sign goof cost FDOT more than $1,500 to correct: Outdated public records can create problems for government projects. Christina Holder of The Naples Daily News reports the Florida Department of Transportation dished out $1,500 to replace a sign with the wrong street name at the intersection of U.S. 41 and Corkscrew Road in Lee County. FDOT officials said a Tampa engineering firm designed the incorrect sign based on old FDOT right-of-way maps listing a Koreshan Park Drive in the area. Among other problems, that road is not listed on the county's electronic mapping system used to track 911 emergencies. Officials had the sign changed three months after residents pointed out the goof. The public records handbook profiles FDOT project files starting on Page 201.
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E-mail Joe Adams at joe@idiganswers.com