1. As St. Johns County Assistant County Attorney Regina D. Ross eloquently admits (below), "Articles 8 and 9 [of the SJC-VCB contract] explicitly provide that access to, and disclosure of, any records related to the services rendered to the County are subject to applicable provisions of the Public Records Act."
2. Ipse dixit.
3. Hence, VCB's Open Records evasion is a material breach of VCB's contract with SJC BCC. See Article 21 (Default) of the SJC-VCB contract.
4. The proof is irrefragable -- St. Johns County delegated VCB what is ordinarily a county governmental function. How do we know that? Our Florida Legislature adopted certain narrow exemptions in the Open Records Act, which are described by the Florida Attorney General's Sunshine Manual:
(3) Tourism promotion records
There are several statutes which exempt certain information obtained or held by state or local tourism agencies. For example, s. 125.0104(9)(d)1., F.S., exempts information given to a county tourism promotion agency, which, if released, would reveal the identity of those who provide information in response to a sales promotion, advertisement, or research project or whose names, addresses, meeting or convention plan information or accommodations or other visitation needs become booking or reservation list data.
Section 125.0104(9)(d)2., F.S., provides an exemption for the following records when held by a county tourism promotion agency: booking business records, as defined in s. 255.047, F.S.; a trade secret as defined in s. 812.081, F.S.; trade secrets and commercial or financial information gathered from a person and privileged or confidential, as defined and interpreted under cited federal law. See also ss. 288.1224(7) and 288.1226(8), F.S. (confidentiality of certain data submitted as part of marketing or advertising research projects undertaken by state tourism agencies).
(emphases added)
5. Our Legislature would never have enacted these narrow county touirsm exemptions if it did not understand "a county tourism agency" and tourism promotion to be a traditional county function. Hence, the SJC BCC delegated to SJCVCB, Inc. a traditional county government function. It's our money. They are our records. Please cease and desist from all further evasions -- VCB's "massive resistance" is an embarassment to our County, our citizens, our tourists, our State and to VCB and MMGY.
6. Again, there is no reasonable legal basis for you to continue to withhold VCB's Antitrust and Civil Rights Compliance Policies, if any.
7. There is no reasonable basis for you to continue to withhold VCB's other documents that I have requested.
8. VCB must not waste time and money on a display of bad manners -- it is bad PR, bad for the 450th/500th, and a waste of our bed tax dollars.
9. It is illegal to "contract, combine or conspire" to violate the antitrust laws. 15 U.S.C. 1 et seq. I have raised questions about MMGY's Vice Chairman telling VCB members to raise there prices. Your response is to resist Open Records jurisdiction. In the words of Richard Milhous Nixon, VCB is "stonewalling it."
10. There is no Open Records exemption for evidence of possible antitrust violations.
11. There is no Open Records exemption for evidence of possible civil rights violations.
12. There is no justifying the actions of VCB and MMGY in refusing to advertise in Miami, to African-Americans, to youth and to GLBT people, or in allowing MMGY to tell some 100 assembled tourism business people to raise prices. Hence, I expect your full cooperation with our investigation, from this day forward. VCB must cease and desist from all further breaches of its contract with SJC BCC.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed
Ed Slavin
Clean Up City of St. Augustine
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998
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