HomeMy Public PortalAboutPRR 16-2302From: Chris O'Hare [mailto:chrisoharegulfstream@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2016 1:20 PM
To: Bill Thrasher <bthrasher@gulf-stream.org>; Rita Taylor <RTaylor@gulf-stream.org>; Renee Basel
<RBasel@gulf-stream.org>; GRichman@richmangreer.com
Subject: Public Record Request - Richman Greer Communication 9-14 and 10-14
Dear Custodian of Records,
This email is being sent to multiple recipients in the hope that it reaches the Custodian of Records for your
agency. I request to inspect certain public records related to the Town of Gulf Stream
Florida.
Before making this public record request, I first searched online and in the public
records portion of your agency's website hoping I could locate the public records I seek
without having to write you directly. Unfortunately I cannot find the records I request to
inspect. Therefore I am writing you now and requesting you make every effort as
required by law to produce these public records without delay. I believe the records I
seek to inspect may be in your custody AND/OR in the custody of an entity associated
with, or under contract with, your agency. As a courtesy to you and that entity,
namely Richman Greer, and to assist in expediting my access to inspect records
responsive to this request I am notifying Richamn Greer of this request by copy of this
email. Do not assume my act of copying Richman Greer with this request relieves you
of any of your duties under Florida Statute. I ask that you contact Richaman
Greer yourself, inform him of his obligations under Florida Statute and produce any
responsive records in their (HIS) custody as soon as possible.
While I am not obligated to explain why I want to inspect these records, I tell you it is for
the purpose of informing myself of the historic and current workings of the Town of Gulf
Stream and its associated entities, vendors, consultants, advisers, contractors and
agents. The records I wish to inspect may also be material to current, anticipated or
presently unforeseen legal action. In addition, inspection of these records may be
essential to my ability to make informed comments in an upcoming public hearing. The
production of any and all responsive records is therefore urgent and must be acted
upon in compliance with Florida Statutes and established case law as soon as possible.
I make this request pursuant to Article 1, Section 24 of the Florida
Constitution and Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes. I hereby reserve all rights granted
to me under the Florida Constitution and Florida Statutes.
I ask that you take the following action:
• Read this entire request carefully and respond accordingly.
• If you are not the custodian of the public records described herein please determine who that person is
and notify me immediately in order that I may make this request to the appropriate person without
delay.
• Reference Florida Statutes and appropriate case law when responding to this record request.
• Do NOT produce any records other than records responsive to this request.
• Identify by name the person or persons responding to this request if that person is not the Custodian of
Records for your agency as required by 119.07(1)(b).
• Respond to this public record request in a singular manner and do not combine
this request with any other public record requests when responding to this
request.
• Once you have determined that you do or don't have any records in your
custody responsive to this request, immediately act to obtain any responsive
records that may be in the custody of your contractor(s) or other parties.
• Provide only those records for inspection that do not require extensive use of
information technologies or extensive staff time or both in excess of 15
minutes.
As background to this request Icall your attention to sections of Florida Statute Chapter 119 which
were recently amended by the Legislature regarding the obligations of any entity under contract
with your agency to deliver to you, or maintain for requested delivery to you, public records in
their custody. Specifically section 119.0701(2)(b)4. requires that a contractor:
Upon completion of the contract, transfer, at no cost, to the public agency all public records in
possession of the contractor or keep and maintain public records required by the public agency to
perform the service.
I request to inspect records presently or previously in the custody of, Mr. Gerry Richman or the
Firm Richman Greer that must, at the completion of the Richman Greer contract, either
have been transferred to your agency at no cost or that this contractor must be keeping and
maintaining to perform the service of transferring to your agency at no cost when required by the
public agency. The specific portion of those records I request to inspect are any records of
communication between the Town of Gulf Stream* and anyone at the firm of Richman Greer during
the months of September and October 2014.
I ask you to take note of §119.07(1)(c) Florida Statues and your affirmative obligation to
(1) promptly acknowledge receipt of this public records request and (2) make a good
faith effort which "includes making reasonable efforts to determine from other officers or
employees within the agency whether such a record exists and, if so, the location at
which the record can be accessed." I am, therefore, requesting that you
notify every individual and entity in possession of records that may be responsive to this
public records request, including individuals and entities under contract with your
agency, to preserve and produce all responsive records on an immediate basis.
If you contend that any of the records I am seeking, or any portion thereof, are exempt
from inspection or disclosure please cite the specific exemption as required
by §119.07(1)(e) of the Florida Statutes and state in writing and with particularity the
basis for your conclusions as required by §119.07(1)(f) of the Florida Statutes. Produce
for my inspection all responsive records and ONLY redact that portion of the record that
you consider exempt. To be clear, if you consider an entire record to be exempt,
produce that record in its entirety with all portions redacted that you consider exempt. I
specifically ask you to do this in order that I may inspect fully redacted records for the
purpose of challenging a particular redaction or establishing a reference for a future
request of a record that is only temporarily exempt, as in the case of a public record that
was prepared by an agency attorney exclusively for litigation and is only exempt from
disclosure until the conclusion of the litigation.
If the public records being sought are maintained by your agency or contactors for your
agency, in an electronic format please produce the records in the original electronic
format in which they were created or received. See §119.01(2)(f), Florida Statutes.
Again I ask that you provide only those records for inspection that do not
require extensive use of information technologies or extensive staff time or both in
excess of 15 minutes. Take note of §119.07(4)(a)3.(d) Florida Statues and if you
anticipate that any records exist, the production for inspection of which will require
extensive use of information technologies or extensive staff time or both in excess of 15
minutes, then please provide those records that can be produced within the first 15
minutes and advise me of the cost you anticipate to be incurred by your agency for the
remaining records prior to incurring this cost. Please do not incur any costs on my
behalf without first obtaining my written authorization to proceed. If you produce only a
portion of all existing responsive records, please tell me that your response includes
only a portion of all existing records responsive to this request.
If you anticipate the need to incur any costs that I would be statutorily required to pay in
order to inspect these public records which would exceed $1.00 please notify me in
advance of your incurring that cost with a written estimate of the total cost. Please be
sure to itemize any estimates so as to indicate the total number of pages and/or
records, as well as to distinguish the cost of labor and materials. Again, please do not
incur any costs on my behalf without first obtaining my written authorization to proceed.
The term public records, as used herein, has the same meaning and scope as the
definition of Public records adopted by the Florida Legislature as Statutes Chapter
119.
A record that does not exist because of its disposition requires the creation of a
disposition record. In all instances where you determine a record does not exist please
determine if the record once existed and in its replacement provide the disposition
record for my inspection.
If you do not understand any part of this request or if you need clarification about this request,
notify me as soon as possible so I may further describe or clarify this request.
*The phrase Town of Gulf Stream when used herein refers to the Town in its entirety
including all employees, appointees, officials, assignees, counsel and consultants
including Town Manager, Town Clerk, Town Police Chief, Town Commissioners, Town
Mayor, Town Departments, Town Police Officers, Town Employees, Town Engineer, the
law firm (Jones Foster Johnston & Stubbs P.A.) that claims to be the Town Attorney
including all attorney, partner and employee members of that firm; the Town Counsel of
Sweetapple, Broeker & Varkus including all attorney, partner and employee members of
that firm, the Town Counsel of Richman Greer, P.A. including all attorney, partner and
employee members of that firm and any other entity associated with the Town and
subject to public records law.
All responses to this public records request should be made in writing to the following
email address:
chrisoharegulfstream@gmail.com
TOWN OF GULF STREAM
PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA
Delivered via e-mail
August 26, 2016
Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisoharegulfstream(ia gmail.com]
Re: GS #2302 (Richman Greer Communication 9-14 and 10-14)
I request to inspect records presently orpreviously in the custody of, Mr. Gerry Richman or the
Firm Richman Greer that mast, at the completion of the Richman Greer contract, either have
been transferred to your agency at no cost or that this contractor must be keeping and
maintaining to perform the service of transferring to your agency at no cost when required by
the public agency. The specific portion of those records I request to inspect are any records of
communication between the Town of Gulf Stream* and anyone at the firm of Richman Greer
during the months of September and October 2014.
Dear Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisoharegulfstreamAgmail.coml,
The Town of Gulf Stream has received your public records request dated August 24, 2016. The
original public record request can be found at the following link:
http://www2.gulf-stream.org/weblink/O/doc/101398/Pagel.aspx
Please be advised that the Town of Gulf Stream is currently working on a large number of
incoming public records requests. The Town will use its very best efforts to respond to you in a
reasonable amount of time with the appropriate response or an estimated cost to respond.
Sincerely,
Rened Rowan Basel
As requested by Rita Taylor
Town Clerk, Custodian of the Records
TOWN OF GULF STREAM
PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA
Delivered via e-mail
September 27, 2016
Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisohareeulfstream(a,,arnail.coml
Re: GS #2302 (Richman Greer Communication 9-14 and 10-14)
I request to inspect records presently or previously in the custody of, Mr. Gerry Richman or the
Firm Richman Greer that must, at the completion of the Richman Greer contract, either have
been transferred to your agency at no cost or that this contractor must be keeping and
maintaining to perform the service of transferring to your agency at no cost when required by
the public agency. The specific portion of those records I request to inspect are any records of
communication between the Town of Gulf Stream * and anyone at the f rm of Richman Greer
during the months of September and October 2014.
Dear Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisoharegulfstream(@wnail.coml,
This letter provides you with the partial responsive production of public records requested on
August 24, 2016. You should be able to view your original requests and the responsive records
at the following link:
htti)://www2.gulf-stream.org/weblink/O/doc/101398/Pagel.gvx
You have asked that the Town only provide those records that do not require extensive use of
information technologies or extensive staff time or both in excess of 15 minutes and that the
Town provide an estimate of the cost that would be required to fulfill the request as permitted by
the Public Records Act. To that end, the Town has spent at least 15 minutes on your request and
is providing with you with a partial response at the same link above.
The Town estimates that to fully respond to your request will require an additional half hour of
legal support at $250.00 per hour, as well as a half hour of paralegal support at $150.00 per hour
to review for exemption, the labor cost of the personnel providing the service, per Fla. Stat. §
119.07(4)(d).
If the costs of producing these documents will exceed your deposit, the Town will provide you
with an initial production of responsive records and an estimate for the production of any
additional responsive records. If the costs of production are less than the deposit, the Town will
provide you with the responsive records and a refund.
(.5 hour @ 250.00 +.5 hour @ $150.00) = Deposit Due: $200.00 in cash or check.
Upon receipt of your deposit, the Town will use its very best efforts to further respond to your
public records request in a reasonable amount of time. If we do not hear back from you within
30 days of this letter, we will consider this request closed.
Sincerely,
Renee Rowan Basel
As requested by Rita Taylor
Town Clerk, Custodian of the Records