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HomeMy Public PortalAboutPRR 16-2052From: Chris O'Hare [mailto:chrisoharegulfstream@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2016 7:49 AM To: Bill Thrasher <bthrasher@gulf-stream.org>; Rita Taylor <RTaylor@gulf-stream.org>; JOConnor@jonesfoster.com; Randolph, John C. <jrandolph@jonesfoster.com> Subject: Request to Inspect Public Records - RICO comm with attorneys at Jones Foster by Town staff Dear Custodian of Records, I request 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 be material to current, anticipated or presently unforeseen legal action. In addition, inspection of these records is 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 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 under contract with your agency. As a courtesy to you and your contractor and to assist in expediting my access to records responsive to this request I am notifying the contractor of this request by copy of this email. Do not assume my act of copying the contractor with this request relieves you of any of your duties under Florida Statute. I ask that you contact those entities yourself, inform them of their obligations under Florida Statute and produce any responsive records in their custody 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. • 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). • 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 I call your attention to the dismissal of the Town's RICO complaint by the Eleventh Circuit, filed 06/21-2016 in Case:15.13433.1 understand this decision concludes the litigation of the RICO prosecution of Christopher O'Hare by the Town of Gulf Stream. Therefore records previously exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution are no longer exempt and must be produced for inspection. Here is that statute for your reference: 119.071 General exemptions from inspection or copying of public records.— (1) AGENCY ADMINISTRATION.—(d)1. A public record that was prepared by an agency attorney (including an attorney employed or retained by the agency or employed or retained by another public officer or agency to protect or represent the interests of the agency having custody of the record) or prepared at the attorney's express direction, that reflects a mental impression, conclusion, litigation strategy, or legal theory of the attorney or the agency, and that was prepared exclusively for civil or criminal litigation or for adversarial administrative proceedings, or that was prepared in anticipation of imminent civil or criminal litigation or imminent adversarial administrative proceedings, is exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. 1 of the State Constitution until the conclusion of the litigation or adversarial administrative proceedings. I request to inspect all records of communication between any member of the Town staff (including Town Manager and Town Clerk) of the Town of Gulf Stream and any attorney at the firm of Jones Foster Johnston & Stubbs P.A. (the entire firm known collectively as the Town Attorney) that is wholly or partly concerning RICO. Please do not include any records of communication that are already available online as part of the Town's published minutes of public meetings. 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. I ask you to note that under 4119.07(2)(a) of the Florida Statutes that a person who has custody of a public record and who asserts that an exemption applies to a particular public record or part of such record shall delete or excise from the record only that portion of the record with respect to which an exemption has been asserted and validity applies, and such person shall produce the remainder of such record for inspection and examination. 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)(0, 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(4Ka)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 §119.011(12)of the Florida Statutes. 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. All responses to this public records request should be made in writing to the following email address: chrisoharegulfstream@gmail.com