July 2003: Oak Hill city commissioner, Bob Jackson, was ordered to pay $250 in fines for violating the Open Meetings Law. Jackson was accused of meeting illegally with a former commissioner to discuss several issues scheduled to come before the commission. County Judge Mary Jane Henderson also ordered Jackson to take a Sunshine Law class.

May 2003: Welaka Mayor Gordon Sands pleaded no contest and paid a $500 fine after being charged last year with violating the Sunshine Law. The charge stems from a discussion Sands reportedly held with another town council member to discuss nominating council member Curtis Williams as council president at a public meeting. Prosecutors and defense attorney James McCune both asked County Judge Peter Miller to withhold adjudication, meaning Sands will not have a criminal record.

April 2003: Dunedin officials agreed to pay more than $3,600 in legal fees to the Liberty Council of Orlando in a settlement reached after the Liberty Council sued the library for not allowing the group to use its public meeting room. The public library declined the religious group access to its meeting room on two occasions, citing that the library’s policy did not allow political, religious and formal social meetings and programs to use the room, exercising separation of church and state. The city will now change its policy, allowing programs of a political or religious nature to use the room.

March 2003: Two Kissimmee city commissioners charged with violating the Sunshine Law accepted a deal to plead no contest to misdemeanor charges. Commissioner Wendell McKinnon and former Commissioner Bob Makinson both made last minute pleas to avoid a criminal record. Instead they pleaded guilty to civil violations and will face $50 fines and court costs. The two men were charged in October after failing to notify the public about meetings in which they discussed providing sister city Santa Maria, Peru, with city support. In a separate investigation, both McKinnon and Makinson were cleared by the state Ethics Commission.

December 2002: The First District Court of Appeals affirmed an administrative judge’s ruling that Welaka resident Caron Speas must pay $9,000 in attorney fees to Mayor Gordon Sands. Speas filed an ethics complaint against Sands after a March 1999 election. According to Speas, Sands ordered a town clerk to delay the release of public records and overcharged her for the records, but it was ruled that the complaint was without merit.

December 2002: The city attorney has agreed to pay the St. Petersburg Times $1,500 in legal fees stemming from a public records dispute. The Times sued the city last summer after officials failed to release personnel files and other documents. A judge ordered the city to release the records or release a statement explaining why the city believed the records should not be released. City attorney ed Foreman responded by saying the city had not refused to release the records and that he was in the process of reviewing the documents to determine if any of the information was exempt. Pinellas Park turned over the requested documents. Foreman has agreed to pay $1,500 in court costs and lawyers’ fees for the delay.

October 2002: A judge refused to overturn a Sunshine Law verdict against suspended Escambia County Commissioner W.D. Childers’ and cleared the way for a retrial of Childer’s on a second Sunshine Law charge. Okaloosa County Judge T. Patterson Maney also ordered suspended Commissioner Terry Smith to pay $4,987 in fines and legal costs for violating the Open Meetings Law. Smith was also ordered to perform 250 hours of community service.

August 2002: Two Flagler County commissioners, Jim Darby and Pat McGuire, were charged with violating Florida’s Open Meetings Law. Both were charged with a civil infraction for discussing their votes on a noise ordinance during a lunch break. Both Darby and McGuire chose not to contest the charges, and each paid a fine of $500.

May 2002: Dade Aviation Consultants was ordered by the 3rd District Court of Appeal to pay $331,000 in legal fees to The Miami Herald, after forcing the newspaper to sue for access to public records. The records that the DAC sought to keep secret were related to $500,000 in payments to lobbyists who helped the consortium win the $5.4 billion Miami International Airport expansion contract.

May 2002: Monroe County must pay $26,285 in legal fees to a local citizens group that successfully fought a sunshine lawsuit. The dispute stemmed from the violation of the open meetings laws during the warding odd a contract to build a sewer system on Key Largo. Last year Circuit Judge Sandra Taylor voided the contract between the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority and Ogden Water Systems, saying that the open government laws had been broken during the selection process. Chief Circuit Judge Richard Payne assessed the fees.

MARCH 2002: The Miami Herald won $331,000 in legal fess from Dade Aviation Consultant after the Third District Court of Appeal ruled the company’s efforts to keep documents secret could be criminal. The Herald first sued the consulting firm in 2000 after they refused to turn over records indicating how much the firm paid lobbyists who helped win a county contract to manage Miami International Airport’s $5.4 billion expansion project. At that time, the judge said the company did not have to pay legal fees and the Herald appealed.

JANUARY 2002: The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office has paid $10,000 in lieu of attorneys’ fees to The News-Journal of Daytona Beach after the office refused to release requested jail transportation logs. The Sheriff’s Office argued that releasing the records would have violated the confidentiality of the inmate’s medical records. Sheriff Jim Manfre settled with the newspaper to pay $10,000, which the newspaper will use to support a Sunshine Law seminar.

AUGUST 2001: The Sanford Housing Authority Board agreed to settle a lawsuit with two tenants who claimed the board violated the state Open Meetings Law when they made an agreement behind closed doors allowing four former board members to resign. The housing board members will pay $24,000 in the settlement; $5,000 to the tenants and $19,000 in attorneys’ fees.

JUNE 2001: Since a 1997 ruling against Prison Health Services for withholding public records from The Ledger of Lakeland, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office has asked Chief Judge Charles Curry, 10th Judicial Circuit, to force the newspaper to pay its legal bills. The Sheriff’s Office argued that the newspaper should have sued only the Prison Health Services and never involved the Sheriff’s Office in the suit. Curry refused to require the newspaper to pay the legal fees, ruling the lawsuit was not frivolous and that public records requests did not have to be put in writing.

APRIL 2001: The Florida Supreme Court ordered Memorial Hospital-West Volusia, Inc. to pay an estimated $100,000 in legal fess to the Daytona Beach News-Journal after the Court ruled that a Public Records Law exemption governing some hospital records cannot be applied retroactively. The 1998 statute exempts records of public hospitals that are leased to private companies, and the newspaper sued for the pre-1998 records of the hospital.

JANUARY 2001: A judge ruled that Martin County commissioners violated the Sunshine Law by meeting in closed-door sessions after The Palm Beach Post filed suit against the county. The judge ordered the county to release written transcripts of the meetings and to pay the newspaper’s attorney fees.

JANUARY 2001: Judge Manual Menendez Jr., 13th Judicial Circuit, ordered the Tampa Palms Community Development District supervisors to pay attorney fees for former supervisor, Bob Doran, who sued the district in 1999, citing four Sunshine Law violations. The community development group will pay $40,000 in legal fees.

JANUARY 2001: The Indian River County Hospital District refused to reimburse board member Richard Aldrich’s request for $36,000 of legal fees. In March, a county grand jury issued indictments against Aldrich and former trustee Allen Seed for knowingly violating the Sunshine Law by discussing district business at a restaurant. Seed also requested legal fee reimbursement, but was also denied. (July 2001 update)

JANUARY 2001: The St. Petersburg Times was awarded $4,750 in legal fee reimbursement after the newspaper filed suit with the city of St. Petersburg when they refused to provide a reporter with copies of public documents. The city has since turned over all documents, and the newspaper is donating the money from the lawsuit to local charities so that community residents are not penalized by their local government actions.

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