HomeMy Public PortalAboutPRR 20-2812-8TOWN OF GULF STREAM
PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA
Delivered via e-mail
December 23, 2020
Martin E. O’Boyle [e-mail to: records@commerce-group.com]
Re: GS #2812-8 (Request for Public Records Related to Martin O'Boyle Criminal Case)
Request for Public Records Related to Martin O’Boyle Criminal Case
8. All text messages created, sent, or received by every person within the
definition of Town of Gulf Stream, including without limitation, Robert
Sweetapple and Joanne O’Connor.
Dear Martin E. O’Boyle [e-mail to: meo@commerce-group.com]:
Thank you for your public records request made on August 30, 2020. On September 17, 2020,
the Town responded as follows:
This part of your request identifies the records sought with sufficient specificity to permit the
Town to identify the requested records.
Records responsive to this request were previously provided to you in response to GS 2704 made
by Martin O’Boyle on April 16, 2019 (“all records . . . which mention or refer to Mar[t]in
O’Boyle, but limited to the incident at the Town Hall on September 22, 2015 regarding Martin
O’Boyle”).
Based on our understanding, the Town will provide an estimate to supplement those records with
additional text messages from April 16, 2019 to the date of your request.
On October 16, 2020, you responded through your Attorney as follows:
This request is not limited to any category of information. This asks for all text messages and will
require conferring with individuals of the Town to ascertain which messages are responsive and
if individuals of the Town possess text messages that were deleted by others. Mr. O’Boyle will
limit this request temporally to January 1, 2013 to the date of the request.
The original request can be found at the following link:
https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/DocView.aspx?id=173216&repo=r-430100cc
Subpart eight of your request can be found at the following link:
https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/DocView.aspx?id=173827&repo=r-430100cc
The Town now estimates that to fully respond to subpart eight of your request will require 5.5
hours of administrative support at $48.38 per hour, 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.
(5.5 hours @ 48.38 = 266.09) = Deposit Due: $266.096 in cash or check.
This estimate does not include redundant production that will be provided in subpart six or nine
of your request, or records that have been provided to you in response to a previous public
records request.
Upon receipt of your acknowledgement that you will pay for these records, 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 closed.
Sincerely,
Reneé Basel
As Requested by Rita Taylor
Town Clerk, Custodian of the Records
TOWN OF GULF STREAM
PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA
Delivered via e-mail
February 26, 2021
Martin E. O’Boyle [e-mail to: records@commerce-group.com]
Re: GS #2812-8 (Request for Public Records Related to Martin O'Boyle Criminal Case)
Request for Public Records Related to Martin O’Boyle Criminal Case
8. All text messages created, sent, or received by every person within the
definition of Town of Gulf Stream, including without limitation, Robert
Sweetapple and Joanne O’Connor.
Dear Martin E. O’Boyle [e-mail to: meo@commerce-group.com]:
Thank you for your public records request made on August 30, 2020. On September 17, 2020,
the Town responded as follows:
This part of your request identifies the records sought with sufficient specificity to permit the
Town to identify the requested records.
Records responsive to this request were previously provided to you in response to GS 2704 made
by Martin O’Boyle on April 16, 2019 (“all records . . . which mention or refer to Mar[t]in
O’Boyle, but limited to the incident at the Town Hall on September 22, 2015 regarding Martin
O’Boyle”).
Based on our understanding, the Town will provide an estimate to supplement those records with
additional text messages from April 16, 2019 to the date of your request.
On October 16, 2020, you responded through your Attorney as follows:
This request is not limited to any category of information. This asks for all text messages and will
require conferring with individuals of the Town to ascertain which messages are responsive and
if individuals of the Town possess text messages that were deleted by others. Mr. O’Boyle will
limit this request temporally to January 1, 2013 to the date of the request.
The original request can be found at the following link:
https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/DocView.aspx?id=173216&repo=r-430100cc
Subpart eight of your request can be found at the following link:
https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/DocView.aspx?id=173827&repo=r-430100cc
Thank you for your deposit of $266.96 by check #53424 received by the Town on January 22,
2021 for the public record request described above, seeking all text messages, with no content
limitation, from every Town employee and contractor and official over a nearly eight year
period.
Pursuant to your e-mail dated January 26, 2021 regarding GS #2812-6, and by reference all
subparts of GS #2812 that seek text message records, the Town understands you seek these text
message records in “native electronic format.” Please be advised that producing these records in
their native electronic format exceeds the Town’s technological ability and legal responsibility
under the Public Records Act. Generally, access to computerized records is provided through the
use of programs currently in use by the public official responsible for maintaining the public
records. It is not the intent of the Public Records Act to put public officials in the business of
compiling charts and preparing documentary evidence. “The intent is rather to make available to
the public information, which is a matter of public record, in some meaningful form, not
necessarily that which the applicant prefers.” See Seigle v. Barry, 422 S. 2d 63, 66 (Fla. 4th DCA
1982); see also Tampa Television, Inc v. Clay Cty. Sch. Bd., 1993 WL 204090, at *2-3 (Fla. Cir.
Ct. Feb. 11, 1993) (applying Seigle and stating that “[w]hile the public records act does not
require [an agency] to compile lists or make special reports solely for [a requestor’s] benefit,”
public records should be provided where they are “easily available” to the agency and “could
have been produced at a minimum of time or expense”). An agency is not required to furnish
electronic records in a format other than the format routinely used by the agency. See also Op.
Att’y Gen. Fla. 97-39 (1997) (“[A] school district is not required to furnish its electronic public
records in an electronic format other than the standard format routinely maintained by the
district.”). If you would like these records in the format regularly and customarily provided to
you in response to other public records requests during the past eight years, please let us know
and we will start working on producing these records. If this is not sufficient and you would
prefer to withdraw your request, please let us know and the Town will refund your deposit.
If we do not hear back from you within 30 days, we will refund your deposit and consider your
request withdrawn.
Sincerely,
Reneé Basel
As Requested by Rita Taylor
Town Clerk, Custodian of the Records