"All of the information in administrators' hands has been included on our Web site and our employees and the public has been invited to review and make suggestions."

But, as of April 18, no such proposals had appeared on the website.

As reported in School Stonewalling, the local newspaper, the Bradenton Herald asked--three times--for the budget cut outlines. When the school district finally handed over the documents on April 18, school administrators said the documents were no longer relevant because the district had already worked things out--obviously, with no public input, since the public didn't have any idea what was going on. As the paper said,

"We have to wonder if district officials do not want any member of the public - be they teachers, staff, citizen watchdogs or the press - to read some documents for fear of real open discussions on issues before top school officials predetermine and then release their own plan, carved in stone."

Meanwhile, the school board has scheduled a workshop to review its policy on public records.

However, for those who have written to us asking for the list of criteria, all we can really say is we know an STOTW when we see an STOTW.

Margaret Pass of Coral Gables, Florida is an STOTW.

All I knew of lovely Coral Gables until reading this morning's newspaper is that about a decade ago on a short trip to Florida, we took our three children to its Venetian Pool. Go there if you can.

I didn't realize that since our visit, Coral Gables has become a troubled city. For instance, I didn't realize that a city-owned vehicle had regularly been used to ferry city guests to the Alley Cat strip club just outside the city.

In the troubles that have come upon Coral Gables, Margaret Pass lost her job in 2006. She had been the director of the Coral Gables Building and Zoning Department until a tip was received that "there might be something wrong in the Building and Zoning Department." It turned out, there were things wrong and when Pass is referred to these days, she is referred to as "the disgraced former Building and Zoning Director Margaret Pass."

What Margaret Pass has now done that has compelled our admiration even as we tried to resist is file a very detailed 4-page open records request with the city of Coral Gables. It appears from the request that she is already familiar with the contents of the documents she has requested.

For example, she requests "any records reflecting the city purchase of art installed in the city manager or mayor’s office" and "all records, including but not limited to applications, plans, e-mails, memos, approval documents and permits related to a permit granted for an enclosed garage at a home in the 200 block of Campina Court".

An attorney consulted by a local newspaper to assist them in interpreting what all this could mean said, "When (city officials) see this type of request they know how to interpret it. In every litigation there are always messages sent, whether they be blatant or flagrant or subtle. In this particular case it would not surprise me if it was in fact a message for the city."

It wouldn't surprise me, either.

Margaret, if you ever read this, please contact our office for your official STOTW certificate.

Today's Status of Sunshine Blogger Project.

E-mail records from governors.

The City of San Jose wants to require its police force to release more documents to the public than the state's sunshine law requires. As they pursue this objective, a county district attorney has argued that the city can't go further than state law.

Colorado:

The editorial staff of the Rocky Mountain News argues against a bill proposed in the Colorado house, HB 1082, that would seal from public view criminal records that are ten years old, as long as the perp has maintained a clean record during that time: Don't Seal Those Records.

Florida

The city of Jackson, Florida, must pay $41,000 in legal fees to the Jackson Sun. The Jackson Sun was forced to go to court to obtain public records that the city willfully and illegally (as determined by a judge) withheld. Pity the taxpayers.

New Jersey

In Hoboken, New Jersey, activist and city council member Beth Mason lost an appeal last week of a judicial ruling that her open records requests were too broad. Mason says that this ruling means that unless a citizen knows the exact title and date of a document, they won't be able to get it. Mason had sought information about the city's park plans. The mayor of Hoboken is under the impression that Mason is wasting taxpayer dollars with her requests. Possibly Mason believes that she is attempting to save taxpayer dollars by finding out how the city makes its decisions about parks.

A complaint by Mr. Sciarrino has led to the Florida Attorney General's office pursuing a non-criminal charge against Marco Island city council member Chuck Kiester for violating Florida's sunshine laws.

City councilman Kiester is charged with deleting e-mails related to city business from his home e-mail account. Kiester has admitted to doing so.

The Naples Daily News maintains:

"Multiple state attorney general opinions have maintained for 11 years that such e-mails should be considered public records."

However, this appears to be the first time charges or complaints have moved forward against a municipal politician based on a potential violation of those opinions.

Meanwhile, my readers already know whose fault this all really is. It is the fault of Sal Sciarrino, who is an extremely bad troublemaker.

Mr. Sciarrino, a private citizen, stands accused of having a "political motivation".

Also, "It’s a travesty to waste the time and effort of the state’s attorney on a piece of junk like this."

Chuck Kiester--the public official who deleted his e-mails about public matters--told the Marco Island Sun Times:

“"I regret that any of this came up. We have enough controversies going on here (on Marco). This is adding fuel to the fire and putting Marco Island in less than rosy light."

It gets worse: "The folks who are involved in filing the complaint are clearly doing it to get even."

Also, Sal Sciarrino was a "front man".

Mr. Sciarrino, we congratulate you and happily welcome you to the ranks of those who have been thanked for their efforts to shed some local government sunshine by public rebuke.

STOTW Note: On weeks when we don't have an STOTW award, it's because of lack of time on my part, not lack of extremely well-qualified candidates.

Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch blog is a good example.

We got to know Hugh a couple months ago when he was our Sunshine Troublemaker of the Week.

This interview gives a broader picture of Hugh's FOIA activism. Enjoy!

1. What year did you file your first open records request?
   

   2006

2. What documents were you looking for?
   

   Innocuous stuff--Employment information.

3. Did you get those documents?
   

   Yes.

4. Charles Davis of the National Freedom of Information Coalition has talked about having "a FOI moment". Have you had "a FOI moment" and can you describe it?
   

   I've had a couple, so I guess those sorts of things Mr. Davis speaks to keep me going (and digging). But on my first, I left a phoney name but a correct phone number because I had heard how weird things were in this place I requested my information. When I went back, there was a 3m sticky on the cover sheet, with our address, phone number and my wife's name (we don't have the same last names) — they had looked us up in a cross-index directory. I was very upset. Why in the world and all that, right? Under the circumstances, the only reason I know of would be to attempt to intimidate.

5. What is the worst (or funniest or most obstructionist or most outrageous) reply you've ever received?
   

   Nothing very funny. I've had every response.

6. How quickly do you generally receive replies to a request?
   

   Sometimes very quickly, but sometimes never. You (meaning me) have to pick your shots. I don't know yet where that will be.

7. About how many open records requests have you filed?
   

   Not all that many. But the responses have run the gamut. That's the most interesting part--Charles Davis was right; It's every excuse under the sun when they don't want to give the information and use citizen's legal attempts to gain information to marginalize folks.

8. How do you let your friends, neighbors or the local media know about the documents you get?
   

   Mostly electronically. Generally I copy the FOIA people and the media now. The local Gannett paper, the Tallahassee Democrat, ran one story, but has not followed up.

9. Have you run into any trouble as the result of filing open records requests?
   

   Just the things I've mentioned. There have been attempts to intimidate me but the push back hasn't yet been too bad.

10. What's the most significant political outcome that has resulted from the work you do?
    

    Nothing yet. I/we are facing the gradual closing off of government. Next year will be the elections so we expect things to get worse.

11. Has your local newspaper ever commented on the work you do? Favorably or unfavorably?
    

    Yes, got a nice article from the Democrat, and one pretty complimentary commentary in a column, but I thought we'd get a bit more help/publicity. The news arc is very short, reporters are overworked, and "why can't we all get along?" is the phrase of the year, it seems.

12. What's your best advice for other "Sunshine Activists"?
    

    Keep plugging.

13. What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started?
    

    To be born rich enough to fight these guys.

14. If you could change your state's open records law just one way, what would that change be?
    

    To resolve the question of personal emails. Florida case law says that personal email is exempt from the sunshine law, even using state owned machines, servers, all that. The rule, to my mind, should be that have at all the personal emails you want, but those emails are fair game to the public.

15. Do you participate in any formal way in organizations that promote the freedom of information cause?
    

    Not formally.

16. Are you willing to have other "sunshine activists" from your state get in touch with you?
    

    Sure.

Thank you very much, Hugh.

Readers are welcome and encouraged to contact Hugh via e-mail.

My very favorite of all time is poor Neville. Check out the whole book if you enjoy macabre humor.

Free public records rule approved for county officials - OK, and what about the people who already paid for these documents? You know, the taxpaying PUBLIC?

 Gov. Crist signs bill of rights to open records - Also in Florida, there is a new "bill of rights" for people requesting public documents. It:

requires officials to respond promptly, bars them from charging more than the law allows for copies and prohibits them from demanding that requests be put in writing unless specifically required by statute.

In other words, to follow the law that already exists.

Easing access New form may improve getting to public records - Greenwich, CT is hoping that citizens making open records requests will use the new form they have created. Only, the form includes such information as the requestors name and address... which is against the law in CT to demand.

Wisconsin bills would limit requests on open records - Here's an article about local happenings. I thought this was funny mostly because of the source... who knew that truckers keep tabs on open records legislation in WI?

Here's the agenda.

Sara, aka Maverick, who originated the WikiFOIA, is on a panel there tomorrow on the "Top 10 Tools for Your FOI Toolbox".

Last week, a Georgia judge ordered a somewhat similar non-profit to open its books to the public.

Both of these non-profits work closely with, and receive some or all of their funds from, the government.

I suspect that the judge who ruled as he did in the Georgia case wanted to make sure that Georgia taxpayers had access to meeting minutes, financial records and vendor contracts--that kind of thing. Was he thinking about the fact that if an agency is subject to FOIA...that means that the emails on the organization's servers are subject to FOIA?

Do the employees of these non-profits understand the potential ramifications of the fact that their organization was just determined to be FOIAable?

Smith, also known as Gee Guy, will be doing a radio interview tomorrow night on the show Small Town, Long Streets.

Charlie's alarming and important story deserves--and will get--lengthy treatment.

If you scroll way, way down to the end--not neglecting to read the excellent article as you scroll--the fact the Mr. Taylor won the coveted STOTW award is mentioned. I'm quoted with these immortal words:

[Commissioner Brimner] projects an unfortunate attitude that will deter other people from asking for open records.

Sunshine Troublemakers are the courageous people who persist when others would give up. They are people who are willing to tolerate rebuke and scorn in order to protect the public's right to know.

With that in mind, allow me to introduce Hugh Taylor, the winner of this week's increasingly coveted and prestigious STOTW Award.

Hugh has upset Ed Brimner, one of five members of the Wakulla County Board of Commissioners.

Here's what happened.

Mr. Taylor is a part-time resident of Wakulla County in Florida. (It's the red splotch in that map, in the Florida panhandle.)

About 23,000 people live in Wakulla County. Mr. Taylor and his wife have purchased a cabin there. They're fixing it up to be a retirement home.

 On Sunday afternoons, after a weekend of cabin restoration, Mr. Taylor and his wife would like to take a dip at the Shell Point Beach, which is owned by Wakulla County.

However, their hopeful visits to Shell Point Beach were often met with "beach closed" signs. Hugh started filing open records requests under Florida sunshine law to figure out why.

In pursuit of information about the closed beaches, one type of record Hugh wanted was emails written by some of the county commissioners. He thought these emails might help him understand how development decisions affecting the beach were made. Hugh received those emails, which apparently included a number of emails that one of the county commissioners, Ed Brimner, would have regarded as private--although, evidently, not private enough that Mr. Brimner used his own computer and email server to send and receive them.

When Hugh got those emails, he also got the email addresses of the people with whom Commissioner Brimner corresponded via email using his government computer and server. Hugh sent those email contacts one email--I've seen a copy--where he politely but firmly disagreed with representations he knew Commissioner Brimner had made about a friend.

In the eyes of Commissioner Brimner, this makes Hugh a pest who from now on will be charged what I'd consider to be rather excessive fees for his open records requests.

In my mind, though, Hugh is a heroic Sunshine Troublemaker. I salute him, I'm proud to welcome him to the ranks of STOTWs, and I think his idea that STOTW award winners deserve at least a T-shirt is the best idea I've heard all month. 

I will also take this occasion to give some free advice to Commissioner Brimner:

When Hugh's adventures in FOIA-land help him figure out how zoning and beach and development decisions are made in Wakulla County--the original subject that started him down this path--we'll give our readers an update.