HomeMy Public PortalAboutPRR 16-2173From: Chris O'Hare[mailto:chrisoharegulfstream@gmail.comj
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2016 12:38 PM
To: gary@brandenburgpa.com; Rita Taylor <RTaylor@gulf-stream.org>; Bill Thrasher <bthrasher@gulf-
stream.org>
Subject: Public Record Request - brandenburg - O'Hare comm.
Dear Custodian of Records,
I wish to inspect certain public records 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. 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. 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. In all cases please reference Florida Statutes and
appropriate case law when responding to this record request.
Please read this entire request carefully and respond accordingly.
This email is a singular request for public records through the agency known as of the
Town of Gulf Stream. Please respond to this public record request in a singular manner
and do not combine this public record request with any other public record requests
when responding to this request. Do NOT produce any records other than records
responsive to this request. Please identify by name the person or persons responding to
this request.
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 trouble you for it. Unfortunately I can not find the records I wish to
examine.
NOTE: This is a request for public records in the custody of Special Magistrate Gary
Brandenburg ONLY. Please do NOT produce any records in the custody of the Town of
Gulf Stream. Limit your response to ONLY records in Mr. Brandenburg's custody.
As background to this record request I call your attention to the many communications between
O'Hare, Town attorney Randolph and the Special Magistrate in regard to the issues related to the Town
of Gulf Stream's most recent criminal prosecution of O'Hare known as CE 15-1.1 DO NOT seek to
inspect any of these communications. I DO seek to inspect any records of communications either sent
or received by Brandenburg which may be related to this matter or related to O'Hare or his property. 1
therefore request to inspect all public records in the possession of Magistrate Brandenburg that
contain subject matter which is wholly or partly related to CE 15-1 or O'Hare or property owned by
O'Hare and that has not been previously shared with, or copied to, O'Hare.
I make this request pursuant to Article 1, Section 24 of the Florida
Constitution and Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes.
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 6119.07(1)(f) of the Florida Statutes.
Please take note of §119.070)(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 in possession of records that may be responsive to this public
records request to preserve all such records on an immediate basis.
If the public records being sought are maintained by 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.
Please 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 6119.07(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 phrase Town of Gulf Stream 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.
The term public records 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 stead provide the disposition record for my inspection.
I hereby reserve all rights granted to me under the Florida Constitution and Florida
Statutes.
All responses to this public records request should be made in writing to the following
email address:
chrisoharegulfstream cDgmail.com
On Mon, May 2, 2016 at 11:35 AM, Gary Brandenburg <gary(t ,brandenburgna.com> wrote:
Mr. O'Hare;
I have received and have reviewed your request, The search of data you
have requested will require work that will exceed 15 minutes. It will also
exceed 15 minutes to determine how much time it will take to conduct a
search of our records. We have many clients and will have to strictly
observe their confidentiality. If you would like us to conduct such a search
we will charge you standard copy fees, the actual cost of the labor,
and supervision by me. Labor will be charged at $70.00 per hour and my
time to supervise this process and protect other clients' information will be
$400.00 per hour.
Please advise us of your desire to proceed with this process and we can
discuss a reasonable deposit.
Thank you
Gary Brandenburg, Esq.
Brandenburg & Associates, P.A.
11891 U.S. Highway One, Suite 100
North Palm Beach, FL 33408
(561)799-1414
(561) 371-1824 (cell)
(561) 758-7496 (Sandy cell)
Garv@BrandenburEPA.com
From: Chris O'Hare [mailto:chrisoharegulfstream@gmail.comj
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2016 1:51 PM
To: gary@brandenburgpa.com; Rita Taylor <RTaylor@gulf-stream.org>; Bill Thrasher <bthrasher@gulf-
stream.org>
Subject: Re: Public Record Request - Brandenburg - O'Hare comm.
Mr. Brandenburg,
Thank you for your timely response to my public record request.
Quite frankly, I am disturbed and puzzled by your response and write to seek
clarification before I fully proceed.
First, I note that you require I pay you a deposit in advance in order for you to determine
how much time it will take to conduct a search of your records. This charge you demand
is in addition to the actual cost of labor and standard copy fees to produce responsive
records for my inspection. In response to this I refer you to Florida Statute:
119.07 Inspection and copying of records; photographing public records; fees;
exemptions.—
(d) If the nature or volume of public records requested to be inspected or copied
pursuant to this subsection is such as to require extensive use of information technology
resources or extensive clerical or supervisory assistance by personnel of the agency
involved, or both, the agency may charge, in addition to the actual cost of duplication, a
special service charge, which shall be reasonable and shall be based on the cost
incurred for such extensive use of information technology resources or the labor cost of
the personnel providing the service that is actually incurred by the agency or attributable
to the agency for the clerical and supervisory assistance required, or both.
Referencing the above statute I do not understand your requirement that I pay you just
to find out if you have records. As the custodian of your records you should already
know if you have records responsive to my request.
Second, you quote your labor to supervise this search and record production at $400
per hour. Is this the rate you charge the Town for your services or is this your special
rate to citizens for supervising the production of public records responsive to their
requests?
Third, is the cost of $70 per hour the actual cost of labor of the person doing this work?
Fourth, if you had read my original public record request carefully, as I requested you
do, you would have noted that I asked to inspect responsive records; I did NOT ask for
copies at this time. Therefore your requirement that I pay for copies is not responsive to
my request.
Fifth, I do not wish to inspect any records that contain confidential information about any
of your "many clients" (unless those clients are municipal agencies subject to Florida's
Public Records Act and the information is not exempt from disclosure) therefore do not
produce any record that is "partly related to CE 15-1 or O'Hare or property owned by
O'Hare" that may also be partly about another client whose information is exempt from
public disclosure.
As I previously wrote you, the records I wish to inspect may be material to current, anticipated or presently
unforeseen legal action. I am therefore in a hurry to inspect them.
As a courtesy to you I am asking a second time to inspect these records. In response to your request that I
advise you of my desire to proceed with this process, I again request you read my original public
record request carefully, and as I previously wrote to you, "please provide those records
that can be produced within the first 15 minutes." I WIII advise you of my desire to
proceed further after I receive clarification from you on the above issues.
May I hear from you soon?
Sincerely,
Chris O'Hare
TOWN OF GULF STREAM
PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA
Delivered via e-mail
June 20, 2016
Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisoharegulfstream@gmail.com]
Re: GS # 2173 (Brandenburg - O'Hare comm.)
As background to this record request I call your attention to the many communications between
O'Hare, Town attorney Randolph and the Special Magistrate in regard to the issues related to
the Town of Gulf Stream's most recent criminal prosecution of O'Hare known as CE 15-1. I DO
NOT seek to inspect any of these communications. I DO seek to inspect any records of
communications either sent or received by Brandenburg which may be related to this matter or
related to OHare or his property. I therefore request to inspect all public records in the
possession of Magistrate Brandenburg that contain subject matter which is wholly or partly
related to CE 15-1 or O'Hare or property owned by O'Hare and that has not been previously
shared with, or copied to, O'Hare.
Dear Chris O'Hare [mail to: chrisoharegulfstreamOwnail.com],
The Town of Gulf Stream has received your original record request dated April 29, 2016. Your
original public records request can be found at the following link: hu://www2.gulf-
stream.org/weblink/0/doc/90365/Pa eg 1_asRxx. Please refer to the referenced number above with
any future correspondence.
Please be advised that the records you seek, whether they are in the custody of Mr. Brandenburg
or not, they are not pubic records with the Town of Gulf Stream.
We consider this matter closed.
Sincerely, Town Clerk, Custodian of the Records