Meeting Reminder and added agenda item.

[Ray Myers]

Hey everyone,

Here's a quick reminder that this upcoming Tuesday there is our monthly meeting. I've added anopther discussion item, see below for details.

Tuesday September 1st
6:00PM to 8:00PM

@ The Gallery in Downtown Melbourne, 701 East New Haven Avenue
Just east of the Henegar Center, upstairs above Vapor.

The monthly social and planning meeting for the Green Party of Brevard County. Come out get involved and meet other local Greens. We will be discussing party planning, strategy and issues with a chance to have some fun and get to know your fellow Greens.
This Month's Agenda

Bill Posey's Healthcare Town Hall Meetings on Wednesday Sept 3rd.
Tabling at the Wellness Center's Green Fair - Sept 19th in Palm Bay
Approval of Bylaws
Vote to petition the Green Party of Florida to be officially recognized as a county party.

**NEW** Getting involved with the resistance to the Rockledge ASR well and the city council's possible violations of Sunshine Law. See details below...

FOR IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE:

August 11, 2009

Save Our Aquifer Group Files Complaint with State Attorney's Office
Regarding City of Rockledge Potential Violations of the Sunshine Law:

Representatives of Save Our Aquifer (SOA) filed a complaint with the State
Attorney's office today alleging that officials of the City of Rockledge
have violated two provisions of the Florida Sunshine Law. In the complaint,
SOA said that a series of secret one-on-one meetings by City Council
members with the City Manager and the city's consulting engineers were a
violation of the requirement that council meetings be open to the public.
 SOA also said that the City Council members were improperly using their
personal computers and private email addresses and that the City Clerk was
not archiving emails from those computers, in violation of the state's
public records law.  

The complaint was hand delivered to the state attorney's office by Richard
Glenn, Vice Secretary of Save Our Aquifer, Inc.  SOA was formed in
opposition to the City of Rockledge's plan to annually inject 180 million
gallons of partially treated sewage wastewater into the Floridan aquifer
(370 - 470 feet below) via a shallow Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR)
injection well.

SOA has learned that on the morning of May 6th, less than 48 hours after a
Public Forum in Viera regarding the controversial ASR well, James McKnight,
City Manager for Rockledge, sent an email to Council members' private email
accounts to arrange a date for a series of private, individual meetings
between the council members and JEA representatives.  The Public Forum on
May 4th had been arranged upon a motion of Councilwoman Georgia Phillips on
April 1st to discuss the ASR injection well.  The 3 - 1/2 hour Public Forum
provided an opportunity for Council to submit questions and make informed
decisions, yet they chose to meet without public notice behind closed doors
with JEA and rehash, and again be persuaded by their engineering firm's
mis-information.  So hush-hush were these private meetings, that at the City
Council meeting later that night of the 6th, McKnight, when asked by Save
Our Aquifer members about the City's plan, did not mention the in-the-works
private sessions.   SOA members had put extensive energy into the Public
Forum, and so were disappointed when their attempts to elicit the thoughts
and opinions of City Council on May 6th were met by blank stares.  The
secret, individual meetings with the Mayor and Council members were held at
Rockledge City Hall on June 18, 2009.  Representatives for JEA,  City
Manager James McKnight and Alan LaDuke, Director of the Wastewater
Treatment Department, attended all of the meetings.  To date, SOA has only
been able to obtain a schedule of those meetings, including an appearance by
the JEA Project Manager at the Rockledge Rotary Club breakfast June 18,
2009.  

---Florida's Government-in-the-Sunshine Law was enacted in 1967. Today, the
Sunshine Law can be found in Chapter 286 of the Florida Statutes.
 Throughout the history of Florida's open government, its courts have
consistently supported the public's right of access to governmental meetings
and records. As such, they also have been defining and redefining what a
public record is and who is covered under the open meetings law.  Florida
voters have overwhelmingly showed their support for government in the
sunshine at all levels of government. They have made it clear they believe
that open government provides the best assurance of government that is
responsive and responsible to the needs of the people.  

Given the actions of the City officials to conceal the planning and
occurrence of the meetings, the use of private email accounts, the close
coordination of the questions and answers, and the presence of the same
staff members in each meeting, Save Our Aquifer believes there is sufficient
evidence to warrant an investigation of whether or not these meetings were a
violation of the Sunshine Law.
In January 2008 the City Attorney Joe Miniclear had this to say to the City
Council about the Sunshine Act: 


In June 2008 the City Clerk and City Attorney expressed this warning about
Council members using private email accounts: 


Read the letter that was delivered to Norman P. Wolfinger's Office: 


Additional information, some of the City E-mails and Audio clips can be
found at: www.saveouraquifer.org <http://www.saveouraquifer.org>

CONTACT Save Our Aquifer:
Dick Glenn:  (321) 298-6726
P.O. Box 251 Cocoa FL 32923, 
email:  in...@saveouraquifer.org <mailto:in...@saveouraquifer.org>
website: www.saveouraquifer.org <http://www.saveouraquifer.org>

****************************
FLORIDA TODAY POLL RESULTS:
Archived on Monday, July 27th
Poll Question:   Should all meetings with Rockledge City Council members on
the injection well issue be in public?
Yes.  They should be in public.  352 votes 
No.    They should not be in public.  31 votes


***************************
SUNSHINE MANUAL

2. Circumstances in which the Sunshine Law may apply to a single individual
or
where two board members are not physically present
...

"Certain factual situations, however, have arisen where, in order to assure
public access
to the decision-making processes of public boards or commissions, it has
been necessary to
conclude that the presence of two individuals of the same board or
commission is not
necessary to trigger application of s. 286.011, F.S. As stated by the
Supreme Court, the
Sunshine Law is to be construed "so as to frustrate all evasive devices."
Town of Palm Beach
v. Gradison, 296 So. 2d 473, 477 (Fla. 1974)."

e. Use of nonmembers as liaisons between board members

"The Sunshine Law is applicable to meetings between a board member and an
individual
who is not a member of the board when that individual is being used as a
liaison between, or
to conduct a de facto meeting of, board members. See, AGO 74-47 (city
manager is not a
member of the city council and thus, may meet with individual council
members; however, the
manager may not act as a liaison for board members by circulating
information and thoughts
of individual council members). Compare, AGO 89-39 (aides to county
commissioners would
not be subject to the Sunshine Law unless they have been delegated
decision-making functions
outside of the ambit of normal staff functions, are acting as liaisons
between board members,
or are acting in place of the board or its members at their direction)."

"For example, in Blackford v. School Board of Orange County, 375 So. 2d 578
(Fla. 5th
DCA 1979), the court held that a series of scheduled successive meetings
between the school
superintendent and individual members of the school board were subject to
the Sunshine Law.
While normally meetings between the school superintendent and an individual
school board
member would not be subject to s. 286.011, F.S., these meetings were held in
"rapid-fire
succession" in order to avoid a public airing of a controversial
redistricting problem. They
amounted to a de facto meeting of the school board in violation of s.
286.011, F.S."

"Similarly, in Sentinel Communications Company v. School Board of Osceola
County,
No. CI92-0045 (Fla. 9th Cir. Ct. April 3, 1992), the court found that a
series of private
meetings between a school superintendent and individual school board members
which were
scheduled by the superintendent to present and consider staff
recommendations concerning the
administrative structure of the school system and to privately address any
objections or
concerns that the board might have, should have been held in the
sunshine. The court said that
its decision should not be construed to prohibit individual board members
from meeting
privately with staff or the superintendent for informational purposes or on
an ad hoc basis.
However, "[i]t shall be construed to prohibit the scheduling of a series of
such meetings which
concern a specific agenda." Thus, the court enjoined the board and its
superintendent "from
holding any further closed door meetings to formulate Board policy, discuss
matters where
Board action is contemplated, or otherwise conduct the public's business.""

"In Citizens for a Better Royal Palm Beach, Inc. v. Village of Royal Palm
Beach, No. CL
91-14417 AA (Fla. 15th Cir. Ct. May 14, 1992), the court invalidated a
contract for the sale of
municipal property when it determined that after the proposal to sell the
property which had
been discussed and approved at a public meeting collapsed, the city manager
met individually
with council members and from those discussions the property was sold to
another group. The
circuit court found that these meetings resulted in a substantial change in
the terms of sale and
that the execution of the contract, therefore, violated the Sunshine Law."

*****************
Please forward freely.....

wolfinger final.doc

--
Rhonda Roff, President Save It Now, Glades! PO Box 1953 Clewiston, FL
33440 www.saveitnowglades.org "It is difficult to get a man to
understand something, when his job depends on his not understanding
it." Upton Sinclair