[HarmonyFL:700] Florida Sunshine Law
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Geo
May 20, 2010, 6:21:36 PM5/20/10
to HarmonyFL
On May 4th I attended an Osceola County School District board meeting.
While there I asked a few questions related to the Florida Sunshine
Law.
I thought that these questions would also be pertinent to the Harmony
CDD and the Harmony HOA since exactly the same law applies to all such
public boards in Florida.
In this case, emails were sent from one school board member to another
school board member about a topic brought before the school board
during a regular school board meeting. Some emails were even sent from
one school board member to the private email addresses of other school
board members (ie. not necessarily to a school system email address).
While Suzanne D'Agresta, the school board attorney, was not able to
respond to my questions during the meeting and although she didn't
really answer my questions directly (as attorneys are often wont to
do), her response a few days later was sufficient none-the-less:
The Osceola School Board members did not violate
Florida's Sunshine laws.
My interpretation of Ms. D'Agresta's response is that electronic
communications are OK to or from public board members in Florida -
EVEN TO OTHER BOARD MEMBERS ABOUT BOARD BUSINESS!!! - as long as the
communications between board members are "one way". "One way
communications" means an original email or message (ie. not a reply to
a previous communication) sent from one board member to another.
Naturally, replies to non-board members are OK anytime.
This means that Harmony CDD and Harmony HOA board members need no
longer fear communicating with their constituents via email, whether
that email is routed to a public forum like this or not. There are no
problems at all with public board members joining this or any other
public forum and saying whatever they like as long as they are not
responding to other board members.
Hopefully Steve Berube will present this eye-opening information
during the next Harmony CDD meeting for the opinion of the Harmony
CDD attorney. With any luck, the CDD attorney will now unpucker his
position and stop discouraging our CDD supervisors from interacting
online publicly for all residents to see.
What follows is the text used when I spoke before the school board.
Osceola School Board Questions May 4, 2010
Summary
With me I have printed samples of emails sent recently from
various board members (Cindy Hartig and David Stone in
particular) to other board members. These emails pertain to
matters discussed before the board.
I am sorry but in addition to what I am reading, I only
have 2 copies with me: one for the attorney and one for the
board. May I hand them out?
You will notice that I have highlighted email addresses
that are not open to public scrutiny. To my understanding,
all of the other email addresses referenced in these emails
are managed by the Osceola School District.
Because these emails were routed through the Osceola School
District email system they are open to public scrutiny as
public records. These emails were obtained from Martha
Mann. Ms. Mann handles public records requests for the
district.
I will be using a definition of the term "public email
address" to mean an email address subject to public records
requests, like the email addresses managed by the Osceola
School District.
All of the following questions assume that the emailing
described occurred outside of the context of a public board
meeting (as was the case for all of the sample emails).
Questions
1) Is it a violation of Florida Sunshine Law for a public
board member to send an email to another public board
member from a public email address to a private email
address?
2) Is it a violation of Florida Sunshine Law for a public
board member to send an email to another public board
member from a public email address to a public email
address?
3) Does the fact that these emails are all open to public
scrutiny mean that they do not violate the Florida Sunshine
Law?
While there I asked a few questions related to the Florida Sunshine
Law.
I thought that these questions would also be pertinent to the Harmony
CDD and the Harmony HOA since exactly the same law applies to all such
public boards in Florida.
In this case, emails were sent from one school board member to another
school board member about a topic brought before the school board
during a regular school board meeting. Some emails were even sent from
one school board member to the private email addresses of other school
board members (ie. not necessarily to a school system email address).
While Suzanne D'Agresta, the school board attorney, was not able to
respond to my questions during the meeting and although she didn't
really answer my questions directly (as attorneys are often wont to
do), her response a few days later was sufficient none-the-less:
The Osceola School Board members did not violate
Florida's Sunshine laws.
My interpretation of Ms. D'Agresta's response is that electronic
communications are OK to or from public board members in Florida -
EVEN TO OTHER BOARD MEMBERS ABOUT BOARD BUSINESS!!! - as long as the
communications between board members are "one way". "One way
communications" means an original email or message (ie. not a reply to
a previous communication) sent from one board member to another.
Naturally, replies to non-board members are OK anytime.
This means that Harmony CDD and Harmony HOA board members need no
longer fear communicating with their constituents via email, whether
that email is routed to a public forum like this or not. There are no
problems at all with public board members joining this or any other
public forum and saying whatever they like as long as they are not
responding to other board members.
Hopefully Steve Berube will present this eye-opening information
during the next Harmony CDD meeting for the opinion of the Harmony
CDD attorney. With any luck, the CDD attorney will now unpucker his
position and stop discouraging our CDD supervisors from interacting
online publicly for all residents to see.
What follows is the text used when I spoke before the school board.
Osceola School Board Questions May 4, 2010
Summary
With me I have printed samples of emails sent recently from
various board members (Cindy Hartig and David Stone in
particular) to other board members. These emails pertain to
matters discussed before the board.
I am sorry but in addition to what I am reading, I only
have 2 copies with me: one for the attorney and one for the
board. May I hand them out?
You will notice that I have highlighted email addresses
that are not open to public scrutiny. To my understanding,
all of the other email addresses referenced in these emails
are managed by the Osceola School District.
Because these emails were routed through the Osceola School
District email system they are open to public scrutiny as
public records. These emails were obtained from Martha
Mann. Ms. Mann handles public records requests for the
district.
I will be using a definition of the term "public email
address" to mean an email address subject to public records
requests, like the email addresses managed by the Osceola
School District.
All of the following questions assume that the emailing
described occurred outside of the context of a public board
meeting (as was the case for all of the sample emails).
Questions
1) Is it a violation of Florida Sunshine Law for a public
board member to send an email to another public board
member from a public email address to a private email
address?
2) Is it a violation of Florida Sunshine Law for a public
board member to send an email to another public board
member from a public email address to a public email
address?
3) Does the fact that these emails are all open to public
scrutiny mean that they do not violate the Florida Sunshine
Law?
James Warren
May 21, 2010, 11:26:35 AM5/21/10
to harm...@googlegroups.com
George,
I believe that there is a very subtle difference between board members sharing communications via email, and board members sharing communications to non board members and the general public in a forum such as this.
If your question or answer from the lawyer had stated such, you would have had a valid point. But I believe in this instance the two are very different.
Jim
Geo
May 21, 2010, 6:35:37 PM5/21/10
to HarmonyFL
Ignorance of the law is common. Here it is from SunshineReview.org,
"Purpose of the law" (see http://tinyurl.com/2g5azd8 ):
The governing idea behind the statute is stated as, "It
is the policy of this state that all state, county, and
municipal records shall be open for personal inspection
by any person."
You can't get any more open than this forum.
Current private email communications with Harmony board members is not
really open at all, until public records requests are made. But that
could prove to be inconvenient. If, for example, Harmony board members
were to give this newsgroup as their public email address, far less
effort would be required on their part when it comes time to fulfil
public records requests.
Clearly, the spirit of the law is transparency and accountability. Yet
thus far, with the developer running the CDD and HOA boards in
Harmony, the sunshine law has been ironically misused as an excuse to
limit transparency and accountability. Those who advocate on behalf of
the developer tend to agree with the developer on this important
point. But clearly this stance is not in the best interests of Harmony
residents.
Over time this will surely change. But first we must elect
representatives who do not fear open discourse in a modern medium like
this and then we must remove the developer (ie. Bob Evans) from these
boards as soon as possible.
"Purpose of the law" (see http://tinyurl.com/2g5azd8 ):
The governing idea behind the statute is stated as, "It
is the policy of this state that all state, county, and
municipal records shall be open for personal inspection
by any person."
You can't get any more open than this forum.
Current private email communications with Harmony board members is not
really open at all, until public records requests are made. But that
could prove to be inconvenient. If, for example, Harmony board members
were to give this newsgroup as their public email address, far less
effort would be required on their part when it comes time to fulfil
public records requests.
Clearly, the spirit of the law is transparency and accountability. Yet
thus far, with the developer running the CDD and HOA boards in
Harmony, the sunshine law has been ironically misused as an excuse to
limit transparency and accountability. Those who advocate on behalf of
the developer tend to agree with the developer on this important
point. But clearly this stance is not in the best interests of Harmony
residents.
Over time this will surely change. But first we must elect
representatives who do not fear open discourse in a modern medium like
this and then we must remove the developer (ie. Bob Evans) from these
boards as soon as possible.
James Warren
May 22, 2010, 11:16:12 AM5/22/10
to harm...@googlegroups.com
Unfortunately George you are right about Ignorance.
The school board attorney also would disagree with you.
Where the communiactions of board members can be made made public upon request (as the law stands), does not mean that the same communication can or has to be broadcast and discussed on any Tom, Dick or George's google forum's.
As far as I'm aware, there is no law broken, and no need for anything to be broadcast on this forum for your own pleasure.
The residents of Harmony are intelligent enough to ask or attend meetings if there are concerns.
If you believe that Harmony CDD has broken the law, have your attorney contact the CDD attorney to demonstrate how. Lets not take up the boards and our own time discussing something that does not exist.
----- Original Message ----
From: Geo <IIDIMG...@spammotel.com>
To: HarmonyFL <harm...@googlegroups.com>
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