Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers

Why we need Sunshine laws

Today is the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors sixth annual Sunshine Sunday, when newspapers across the state write about the importance of open government and the First Amendment. After all, open-government meetings and records help make democracy possible. Without such openness, citizens would have no idea what kind of job their elected officials, and their appointed staffers, are doing — or how citizen tax dollars are being spent. Today also is the kickoff of Sunshine Week, a national effort sponsored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

As part of the effort, Scripps Treasure Coast Newspaper staffers were asked for anecdotes about unusual efforts to keep the public informed using open-government laws.

FROM STUART NEWS ARCHIVES:

The reporter who was jailed

Perhaps the most high-profile First Amendment case on the Treasure Coast involved Stuart News reporter Tim Roche.

In 1990, Roche was found in contempt of court when he refused to identify the person who let him see a confidential child-custody order he used to write a story that focused on a judge’s decision to take away the custody of Cheryl Puffinberger over her younger daughter, Charlotte May. The Puffinbergers’ other daughter, 3 1/2-year-old Crystal, had died of abuse, but neither parent was charged with murder because prosecutors couldn’t determine who killed the child.

Afraid Charlotte, the sister of the deceased girl, would be handed back to the Puffinbergers, Roche wrote a story using information from the custody order. He was sentenced to 30 days in Martin County Jail. He earned time off for good behavior and served 18 days in 1993.

Roche was the first reporter in Florida to go to jail for protecting his sources.

FROM LARRY REISMAN:

Superintendent puzzled after record obtained

After a deadly school bus accident in Indian River County, the National Transportation Safety Board was called in to investigate. We got word that the School District had a copy of the NTSB preliminary report, which, we were told, confirmed reports that the bus driver had been in the process of picking up her cell phone when she ran a stop sign. The NTSB and schools Superintendent Roger Dearing insisted the report was confidential.

We subsequently learned that Indian River County had a copy, too, and County Attorney Charles Vitunac, after checking with Assistant Attorney General Pat Gleason, let us have it. After our story, Dearing went on TV pledging to find the person in his office who leaked the report to us.

FROM LARRY REISMAN:

The Dodgers sale notes that were released

Both parties secretly were negotiating the sale of Dodgertown by the Los Angeles Dodgers to Indian River County and Vero Beach. We were told a deal was imminent and that it would go through quickly, with little public review or input. We asked for all sorts of public records, including meeting notes. Much to his credit, former County Administrator Jim Chandler released notes, including doodles, regarding the deal.

From that, reporter Michael Kaiser was able to put together a story detailing the proposed purchase. Chandler refused to talk about the notes and warned me, as editor, that writing about the matter would kill the deal. I called his bluff and ran the story. The deal went through.

FROM HENRY STEPHENS:

The blocking technique that failed

Before Mary Beth McDonald was a Vero Beach City Council member and mayor, she was the communications director for former City Manager Rex Taylor.

One day in 2000, I heard then-Human Resources Director Jim Ouellette was resigning. I heard there was an e-mail he had sent around and upset certain city employees. So I asked about it. And no way was Mary Beth going to give that e-mail or his resignation letter to me. She kept objecting, saying Ouelette has a nice family and she knew his wife, etc. I learned from then- Assistant City Manager Jim Bursick that Taylor’s secretary, Joyce Vonada, had the material I was requesting. So I got up to go into her office. And Mary Beth actually stood in my way, blocking me from Joyce’s door. I took a few steps toward her and she took a few steps back and thus opened a route into Joyce’s door. Joyce was much more professional and made the copies I requested.

Mary Beth later complimented my story as fair to Jim. I asked why she behaved the way she did, and she told me she was afraid I would do a negative story. She didn’t get it that she wasn’t supposed to consider that in granting a public records request.

FROM COLLEEN WIXON:

The closed meeting that opened

Two fathers challenged a book that was being used in his daughter’s high-school classroom. The Indian River County School District’s procedure in dealing with such challenges is to have a committee of parents and educators review the book and then make a recommendation to the School Board.

When the committee was scheduled to vote on whether to recommend the book be pulled from the classroom, I — along with other news organizations and the parents involved — asked to attend the meeting. We all were denied the request.

I did some research into the law, and used my findings — meetings of a committee charged with making a recommendation to the governmental body are subject to the Sunshine — to get the meeting open to everyone.

The parents thanked me for giving them access to the meeting. (I was the only reporter to question the denial, which surprised me. I think AP, Florida Today and some TV stations wanted to attend the meeting, but no one else insisted they be allowed to attend.)

FROM COLLEEN WIXON:

Secret superintendent search foiled

In 2003, when the Indian River County School District was looking for a new schools superintendent, the search firm selected to help the district intended to keep all applications for the position in their office in Illinois. I wanted to look at the applications, but was told they weren’t being kept locally.

I enlisted the help of the First Amendment Foundation and (assistant attorney general) Pat Gleason to confirm that those applications were not only subject to the Sunshine Law, but they also had to be kept in a location so the publiccould have reasonable access. It wasn’t reasonable to expect someone to go to Illinois to look at applications. At my insistence, the School Board attorney arranged to have copies of the applications submitted sent to the district’s superintendent’s office so anyone could look at them.

FROM GEORGE ANDREASSI:

The records that led to an exposé

After receiving an anonymous tip that several Martin County Fire-Rescue workers were making more than $100,000 per year with overtime, I asked the clerk of courts in October 2003 for the annual payroll earnings of all the fire-rescue workers for fiscal 2003 as well as a list of the county employees earning more than $100,000.

The next day, I got a call from firefighters union leaders asking for a meeting because they heard I was going to write a negative story about their salaries. I also got a call from a disgruntled firefighter complaining about alleged mismanagement. Apparently, at least two firefighter wives work in the clerk’s office and put out the word that I requested the payroll info.

A couple of weeks later, I got the payroll info showing several fire-rescue workers did in fact earn more than $100,000 in the 2003 fiscal year and met to discuss the findings with the fire-rescue union leaders, fire-rescue brass and county officials.

Then I wrote a story that came out in December saying some county commissioners and government watchdogs were concerned about the $1.6 million in overtime paid to the fire-rescue workers in the 2003 fiscal year and that OT enabled a battalion chief to earn $16,000 more than the fire-rescue chief in 2003.

Before the story came out, in mid-October, the commission and the firefighter’s union agreed to a three- year contract with a 8 percent raise each year.

In August 2006, the commission and the firefighters union agreed to a three-year contract with a 10 percent raise each year.

Lesson learned: The exposé had no effect on the ability of the firefighters union to negotiate a highly favorable deal with the County Commission.

FROM ALEXI HOWK:

The missing memo that magically surfaced

I requested a public document, a memo from a developer’s attorney to the Fort Pierce city manager. I was told by the deputy city manager, David Recor, that he couldn’t find it and when he found it he would fax it to me.

After three days of nagging them for it, his secretary told me he was reviewing it and that he would send it to me after he was done reviewing it. She said he would call me in a couple of minutes. He never called back. I called back about 30 minutes later and was told he was in a meeting and would call me after the meeting. I called back an hour later and he was gone for the day.

He called me at 6 p.m. and said he left the office and therefore he couldn’t fax me the document. I said, “I’ll get it tomorrow.” He said, “OK.”

Well, when I requested the document the following day, I was told by his secretary he had the day off and no one knew where the memo was, including the city manager. I called Mayor Bob Benton and told him they were in violation of public records law and apprised him of the situation and that I was calling the First Amendment Foundation. The mayor said he would call the city manager.

Five minutes after I hung up with the mayor, the deputy city manager’s secretary called me and said, “I have a copy of the memo on my computer, I’ll fax it to you.” This is the same secretary who told me no one could find the memo.

Reproduced courtesy of the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers.
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