Manatee County has admitted wrongdoing in a legal battle against the Florida Center for Government Accountability over unfulfilled public records requests.
Representatives from the nonprofit said they believe the county could be withholding records that show officials are conducting public business over text messages outside of the public eye.
The organization filed the civil lawsuit in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court in early August, claiming Manatee County did not fulfill requests for text messages sent this year to or by county Administrator Scott Hopes and two deputy administrators, Robert Reinshuttle and Charlie Bishop.
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"A phenomenal amount of public business is being carried out by text message by county commissioners, county administrators, and lobbyists behind the scenes that give a completely different explanation than the county's official meetings do, and we're not sure if we have all of them yet," FCGA Director for Public Access Michael Barfield said.
"You look at these messages, and you then understand that the public meetings are merely perfunctory. That's a big problem that needs to be exposed."
The county does not contest the claims and agreed to an order that requires the county to produce the records, according to court documents signed Aug. 25 by Assistant County Attorney Douglas Polk.
"Manatee County has essentially confessed that they were not following the law and that they are not currently in compliance with the public records law where it relates to archiving text messages," Barfield said.
The county is required to archive and back up text messages by Florida law, but up until recently, it did not have the ability to capture the content of text messages.
Even though the county expressed a desire to come into compliance, Polk wrote that it only agreed to archive future text messages from new county-business cell phones that will be issued to county staff soon — an option Barfield disagrees with.
The county previously allowed employees to use their personal phones for business and provided a stipend, but has recently changed that policy and will instead issue dedicated cell phones that have the ability to capture text messages for county business, court records show.
The county also purchased iMazing software as a stopgap measure until the new text message archiving system is fully implemented. The software requires each device to attach to a system that downloads text messages, records show.
Polk said the county used the software to fulfill the nonprofit's request.
"Manatee County acknowledges that the records requested were not timely produced because of the county's current information technology limitations," Polk wrote.
"The county was initially unable to comply with Florida's public records laws," he wrote. "However, after purchase of the iMazing software, the county was able to comply."
Barfield is not convinced. He said the county has failed to produce text message logs that could be used to verify whether any text messages have been deleted, and is also objecting to subpoenas to cell phone service providers that could produce those documents.
He believes the court should impose stricter requirements for compliance, like requiring the county also recover and archive the previous county-business-related text messages.
"It's great they are coming into compliance, but they need to go backward as well as forward, " Barfield said. "Why are they objecting? I believe there are other records out there that relate to official business that the county does not want to see the light of day."
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