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HomeMy Public PortalAboutPRR 16-2325Renee Basel From: Chris O'Hare <chrisoharegulfstream@gmail.com> Sent: Saturday, September 24, 2016 7:40 PM To: Bill Thrasher; Rita Taylor; Renee Basel; jrandolph@jonesfoster.com Subject: Public Record Request - Mathews Consulting modified agreement Dear Custodian of Records, I request to inspect certain public records related to the Town of Gulf Stream Florida. While I am not statutorily 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. 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 wish 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. The public records I seek to inspect may be in the custody of an entity currently or previously associated with, or under contract with, your agency. As a courtesy to you and that entity, and to assist in expediting my access to inspect records responsive to this request I am notifying that entity, the Town Attorney, of this request by copy of this email. I am NOT requesting the Town Attorney produce responsive records directly to me. Rather I am alerting him to my request to you so that he may prepare to assist you, if he choose to, in producing responsive records. Do not assume my act of copying the Town Attorney with this request relieves you of any of your duties under Florida Statute. I ask that you contact the Town Attorney in order to obtain all Public records responsive to this request. 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 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. • If records responsive to this request are not presently available but you expect that they will soon be available I request that you produce the records as soon as they are available. 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. 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. As background to this request I call your attention to Agenda Item # IX. B. Agreement for General Engineering Services - Mathews Consulting which was part of the Agenda of the Sept 9, 2016 Regular Meeting and Public Hearing held by the Town Commission. Despite being prepared by Town's legal counsel, the agreement was legally insufficient. During that meeting, in an effort to help the Town avoid any more violations of Florida Statute Chapter 119, I called the Commission's attention to text missing from that agreement which is now required by Florida Statute, specifically §119.0701(2)(a) and §119.0701(2)(b). Commissioner Stanley subsequently moved to approve the agreement conditioned upon the addition of the missing text mandated by §119.0701(2)(a) and §119.0701(2)(b). I request to inspect the public record of that modified agreement which now includes the text referenced in Commissioner Stanley's Motion to Approve; which text is also clearly identified in §119.0701(2)(a) and §119.0701(2)(b). 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. The phrase Town of Gulf Stream when used herein refers to the Town in its entirety and all entities of the Town 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 3 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. 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. All responses to this public records request should be made in writing to the following email address: chrisoharegulfstream@gmaii.com TOWN OF GULF STREAM PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA Delivered via e-mail September 28, 2016 Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisoharegulfstream(a,gmail.coml Re: GS #2325 (Mathews Consulting modified agreement) As background to this request 1 call your attention to Agenda Item # LK B. Agreement for General Engineering Services - Mathews Consulting which was part of the Agenda of the Sept 9, 2016 Regular Meeting and Public Hearing held by the Town Commission. Despite being prepared by Town's legal counsel, the agreement was legally insufficient. During that meeting, in an effort to help the Town avoid any more violations of Florida Statute Chapter 119, I called the Commission's attention to text missing from that agreement which is now required by Florida Statute, specifically §119.0701(2)(x) and §119.0701(2)(b). Commissioner Stanley subsequently moved to approve the agreement conditioned upon the addition of the missing text mandated by §119.070](2)(a) and §119.0701(2)(b). I request to inspect the public record of that modified agreement which now includes the text referenced in Commissioner Stanley's Motion to Approve; which text is also clearly identified in §119.0701(2)(a) and §119.070](2)(b). Dear Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisohareRulfstream(i)gmail.coml, The Town of Gulf Stream has received your original record requests dated September 24, 2016. Your original public records request can be found at the following link: htti)://www2.gulf-stream.org/weblink/O/doc/I02162/PageI.ast)x The response to your request can be found at the following link: http://www2.gulf-stream.org/weblink/O/doc/I02027/Pa 02027/Page l.asnx We consider this request closed. Sincerely, Rene6 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: chrisoharegulfstream(a,email.comj Re: GS #2325 (Mathews Consulting modified agreement) As background to this request 1 call your attention to Agenda Item # IX. B. Agreement for General Engineering Services - Mathews Consulting which was part of the Agenda of the Sept 9, 2016 Regular Meeting and Public Hearing held by the Town Commission. Despite being prepared by Town's legal counsel, the agreement was legally insufficient. During that meeting in an effort to help the Town avoid any more violations ofFlorida Statute Chapter 119,1 called the Commission's attention to text missing from that agreement which is now required by Florida Statute, specifically §119.0701(2)(a) and §119.0701(2)(6). Commissioner Stanley subsequently moved to approve the agreement conditioned upon the addition of the missing text mandated by §119.070](2)(a) and §119.0701(2)(b). 1 request to inspect the public record of that modified agreement which now includes the text referenced in Commissioner Stanley's Motion to Approve; which text is also clearly identified in §I19.0701(2)(a) and §119.0701(2)(b). Dear Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisoharegulfstreatni( gmail.coml, The Town of Gulf Stream has received your public records request dated September 24, 2016. The original public record request can be found at the following link: h!W://www2.zulf-stream.orgJweblink/0/doc/102162/Pa el asux 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, As requested by Rita Taylor Town Clerk, Custodian of the Records