Public Records Private

Last updated on July 21, 2021

Local | County Officials Keep Public Records Private

Did you know Pinellas County charges an hourly rate of $72.29 for an Agile data pull and $61.65 an hour for a data pull from the Pinellas City Works Database? Data pulls are done by a Pinellas County employee who already makes $25 to $50 per hour plus benefits.

There are several dodgy methods local officials utilize to protect themselves from the wrath of voters. One method is employed repeatedly. Is to make it challenging to access public records. Very expensive, and usually wasted time.

Many state, county, and municipal officials do whatever they can to make accessing public records demanding, which means a relatively simple request, like finding out who cleans the town offices, ridiculously expensive and time-consuming legal battle.

Why would lawmakers make it their mission to make it demanding for its citizens to retrieve public records?

By concealing public records from voters, the true nature of their intentions, and any lasting effects their choices have on the community.

Florida’s policy is that all state, county, and municipal records are open for personal inspection and copying by any person. Providing access to public records is the duty of each agency. That is the law, but laws are only as good as those that enforce them.

Even open government – “Sunshine” Law under the control of the Attorney General’s Office records law that lacks enforcement. If an agency decides not to release its documents, the only option is to sue as there is no enforcement or agency ensuring compliance.

My request was straightforward. I thought it would be available with a few clicks of a mouse? My application included regarded county right-of-way Mehlenbacher on the north side from 202 to 668 in Belleair, FL 33756.

The response from Florida’s Attorney General’s Office was classic government official jawboning:

Hello and thank you for contacting the attorney general's office.   You question whether the fee estimate you have received is correct. While the attorney general's office cannot issue legal interpretations to private citizens general information about public records is available in the sunshine manual at the open government site at myfloridalegal.com. fees are discussed in pages 172_178. You might want to contact the records custodian about the fee.
Typically, agencies charge the service charge if extensive labor is required to produce the records. So, you can ask for a cost breakdown to find out what the agency says is involved in producing the records
If you have any questions please let me know.  I can also explain our voluntary open government mediation

Sincerely
Pat Gleason
Special Counsel for Open Government

Office of the Attorney General

I had already contact Belleair and have yet to get any public records.

I contacted Pinellas County. They said they’d get them only after paying a form of government extortion. Charging an hourly rate of $72.29 for an Agile data pull and $61.65 data from the Pinellas City Works Database. A technique used to make access to public records problematical:

Dear Mr. Johnston,

The estimate to provide records responsive to your request is the original quote of $340.17.  The estimate does not change by changing the date range.  The estimate is based on the labor to research, set up and extract the data reports from the various databases.  If you would like me to proceed with processing your request, please make a check payable to the Board of County Commissioners and send to the address below to my attention.  Once I receive your check, I will process your request and provide via email.

Thank you

Karen M. Baker

Public Records Request Liaison

Dear Mr. Johnston,

Below is the breakdown for producing the records for your request for “records of scheduled work-maintenance performed by the County for the 600 block of Mehlenbacher Rd, Belleair”.

Request 1 – Data pulls from Agile Database, estimated time of 3 hours at the hourly rate of $72.29 for Enterprise Asset Management & Work Management Section Manager, for a total of $216.87

Request 2 – Data pulls from City Works Database, estimated time of 2 hours at the hourly rate of $61.65 for Preventative Maintenance Program Coordinator, for a total of $123.30 Total Cost:  $340.17

Thank you

Karen M. Baker Administrative Secretary to Kelli Hammer Levy, Interim Director Pinellas County Public Works