HomeMy Public PortalAboutPRR 17-2499Renee Basel
From: Chris O'Hare <chrisoharegulfstream@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, December 30, 2016 9:15 AM
To: Bill Thrasher; Rita Taylor, Renee Basel
Subject: Asking again - Fwd: GS #2361 (Follow-up to GS #2233 (Thrasher statement - no
additional assessments)
Dear Custodian of Records,
On June 9, 2016 I asked to inspect the following public records:
Town Manager Thrasher reminded that at the beginning everyone was told there would
be no additional assessment so this will be from the General Fund.
I request to inspect the minutes of any public meeting that contain the recorded comments of any Town official,
staff or consultant that conveyed to any Town residents that there would be no additional assessments as
referenced by Mr. Thrasher during the May 13, 2016 meeting.
On June 15 you responded by providing a link to voutube.com and gulf-stream.org and telling me to find any responsive records
on my own. Specifically you wrote:
The Town of Gulf Stream is not required to give out information from these records nor give information about
these records. All videos of meetings can be found by going to the following
link: https://www.voutube.com/channeYUCvJTien2HMOSbss-CYOozdQ/feed?view as=public. Ali minutes of the
Town can be found by going to www.gulf-stream.ora, click on "Find a Town Record", click on "Town Clerk", click
on "Minutes" There you will find all minutes of the Town.
Rather than produce the record I requested you instead sent me on a wild goose chase to search in vain among
all meeting minutes for the specific minutes that I requested to inspect. That same day I asked again to inspect
this record or the record of its disposition. Specifically I wrote:
I respectfully ask again that you producefor my inspection the minutes ofanypublic meeting that contain the recorded
comments ofany Town official, staff or consultant that conveyed to any Town residents that there would
be no additional assessments as referenced by Mr. Thrasher during the May 13, 2016 meeting. Ifthe record no longer exists
I ask again that you produce its disposition record. If the record does not exist and no disposition record exists please let me
know so I may know to take appropriate action.
I waited over four months for you to reply. Since you did not replay in all that time I assume you did not intend to respond further. I therefore
wrote you on October 23, 2016 and tried again to inspect any record that would verify Mr. Thrasher's comments of May 13, 2016. I requested
you produce the following records:
Any public record in the custody ofthe Town of Gulf Stream ofany communication from anyone to "everyone"* (or anyone)
that "there would be no additional assessment" as stated by Mr. Thrasher during the May 13, 2016 meeting.
The phrase "as stated by Mr. Thrasher" was intended to mean the full statement Mr. Thrasher made on May 13, 2016. That statement clearly
describes the time frame of the communication record to be at the beginning of the undergrounding project. Despite this clear request
you instead produced a letter from Mayor Morgan which is dated March 20, 2016 - six years after the beginning of the
undergrounding project. This record was certainly not created at the beginning and Is not responsive to the request.
I am therefore asking again to inspect the public record that is referenced by Mr. Thrasher in his May 13, 2016 statement. I offer
the following clarification in an attempt to finally inspect any records that may be responsive to this request. Please produce the
following public record:
Any public record in the custody of the Town of Gulf Stream of any communication, the subject of which is
partially or substantially regarding telling everyone there would be no additional assessment as described
by Mr. Thrasher during the May 13, 2016 meeting when he stated "at the beginning everyone was told there
would be no additional assessment."
Please limit responsive records to only those records created within 6 years of the date discussions began regarding the
current undergrouuding project which occurred publicly on November 13, 2009 when Gulf Stream Civic Association
President Robert Ganger made his presentation to the Town Commission proposing the current undergrounding
project. in other words please produce responsive records created prior to November 13, 2015.
Since funding discussions were substantially completed around December 10, 2010 with the adoption of Resolution
010-5, 1 would think that Mr. Thrasher's reference to "at the beginning" may refer to a period sometime around 2009
to 2011.1 suggest, for the sake of expediency that you ask Mr. Thrasher what time period he was referring to when he
stated "in the beginning. " Mr. Thrasher may even be able to quickly direct you to the responsive records.
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.
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.
PJ
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l i t i g a t i o n .
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c r e a t e d o r r e c e i v e d . S e e � 1 1 9 . 0 1 ( 2 ) ( f ) , F l o r i d a S t a t u t e s .
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o f � 1 1 9 . 0 7 ( 4 ) ( a ) 3 . ( d ) F l o r i d a S t a t u e s a n d i f y o u a n t i c i p a t e t h a t a n y r e c o r d s e x i s t , t h e p r o d u c t i o n f o r
i n s p e c t i o n o f w h i c h w i l l r e q u i r e e x t e n s i v e u s e o f i n f o r m a t i o n t e c h n o l o g i e s o r e x t e n s i v e s t a f f t i m e o r
b o t h i n e x c e s s o f 1 5 m i n u t e s , t h e n p l e a s e p r o v i d e t h o s e r e c o r d s t h a t c a n b e p r o d u c e d w i t h i n t h e f i r s t
1 5 m i n u t e s a n d a d v i s e m e o f t h e c o s t y o u a n t i c i p a t e t o b e i n c u r r e d b y y o u r a g e n c y f o r t h e r e m a i n i n g
r e c o r d s p r i o r t o i n c u r r i n g t h i s c o s t . P l e a s e d o n o t i n c u r a n y c o s t s o n m y b e h a l f w i t h o u t f i r s t o b t a i n i n g
m y w r i t t e n a u t h o r i z a t i o n t o p r o c e e d . I f y o u p r o d u c e o n l y a p o r t i o n o f a l l e x i s t i n g r e s p o n s i v e r e c o r d s ,
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.
*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 Staff Attorney, 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.
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. Due to issues of delivery failure and occasional
rejection by your server this email is being sent to multiple recipients to insure prompt delivery.
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
February 7, 2017
Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisoharegulfstreamna gmail.com]
Re: GS #2499 (Asking again - Fwd: GS #2361 (Follow-up to GS #2233 (Thrasher statement
- no additional assessments))
I am therefore asking again to inspect the public record that is referenced by Mr. Thrasher in
his May 13, 2016 statement. I offer the following clarification in an attempt to finally inspect
any records that may be responsive to this request. Please produce the following public record:
Any public record* in the custody of the Town of Gulf Stream ** of any communication, the
subject of which is partially or substantially regarding telling everyone there would be no
additional assessment as described by Mr. Thrasher during the May 13, 2016 meeting when he
stated "at the beginning everyone was told there would be no additional assessment. "
Please limit responsive records to only those records created within 6 years of the date
discussions began regarding the current undergrounding project which occurred publicly on
November 13, 2009 when Gulf Stream Civic Association President Robert Ganger made his
presentation to the Town Commission proposing the current undergrounding project. in other
words please produce responsive records created prior to November 13, 2015.
Since funding discussions were substantially completed around December 10, 2010 with the
adoption of Resolution 010-8, I would think that Mr. Thrasher's reference to "at the beginning"
may refer to a period sometime around 2009 to 2011. I suggest, for the sake of expediency that
you ask Mr. Thrasher what time period he was referring to when he stated "in the beginning. "
Mr. Thrasher may even be able to quickly direct you to the responsive records.
Dear Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisohareeulfstreamCa,gmail.coml:
The Town of Gulf Stream has received your public records requests dated December 30, 2016.
You should be able to view your original request and response at the following link:
bgp://www2.gulf-stream.org/weblink/O/doc/l 05303/Pagel . aspxx
Please refer to prior correspondence GS #'s 2361 and 2233. The Town has used its very best
efforts to provide you with records responsive to your request in good faith. We believe these
records are responsive to your request. We consider this request closed.
Sincerely, 77
R� R�w�..944d
As requested by Rita Taylor
Town Clerk, Custodian of the Records