----Original Message-----
From: easlavin
To: dsteclaire
Sent: Wed, Nov 26, 2014 9:56 pm
Subject: Re: DANA STE. CLAIRE Daily schedules, list of appointments and phone contacts, travel, entertainment and lodging expenditures since you went to work for City of St. Augustine; 450th coffee table book outline and draft
Dear Dana:
This is silly and petty.How gauche and louche.
Why? Is what you do all day something we should pay more than your salary to fathom?
Please send all 2014 calendars, etc, which should be instantly available.
Please return multiple phone messages left unanswered for a month.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Thank you.
-----Original Message-----
From: Dana Ste. Claire
To: easlavin
Sent: Wed, Nov 26, 2014 3:43 pm
Subject: RE: DANA STE. CLAIRE Daily schedules, list of appointments and phone contacts, travel, entertainment and lodging expenditures since you went to work for City of St. Augustine; 450th coffee table book outline and draft
This public records request which extends to my beginning of my employment with the city February 2009 will require an extensive data search by me, 450th department personnel, IT department personnel, the Department of Finance, the City Clerk’s office, and other city staff. I will compile estimates of staff time and the hourly rate required to produce the records you have requested and provide these to you via e-mail as soon as possible. I estimate that it will take me four working days, or 32 hours, with assitance to conduct a manual search of all paper documents in the City records compliant with your search terms, as well as research electronic files and compile information. Our information technology research costs are $35.28 per hour. Clerical research/support costs are $15.12 per hour. I will get estimates from the Financial Services and City Clerk’s offices, as well. Due to the extensive research costs to produce the records you have requested, and for information technology and clerical time necessitated by your public records request, the City will require a deposit to be paid prior to commencing the request searches. There will be an additional fee for copies of the large volume of documents that are anticipated to be produced for this public records request. Once this fee is calculated, you may pay the deposit at the City’s Financial Services office during regular hours.
Dana Ste.Claire
Director
St. Augustine 450th Commemoration Department
City of St. Augustine
Description: Description: cid:image001.png@01D00953.EDADA4A0
P.O. Box 210
St. Augustine, FL 32085-0210
904.209.4226 Office
904.669.5318 Cell
dsteclaire@citystaug.com
www.staugustine-450.com
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Get In Touch:
www.StAugustine-450.com
www.Facebook.com/450th
www.Twitter.com/StAugustine450
From: easlavin@aol.com [mailto:easlavin@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2014 10:54 AM
To: Dana Ste. Claire
Cc: ilopez@citystaug.org; Lucy Fountain; John Regan; Tim Burchfield; Martha Graham; Jim Piggott; cityfreeman@yahoo.com; NancySikesKline@aol.com; Roxanne Horvath
Subject: DANA STE. CLAIRE Daily schedules, list of appointments and phone contacts, travel, entertainment and lodging expenditures since you went to work for City of St. Augustine; 450th coffee table book outline and draft
Please send today. Thank you
A citizen doesn't have to say "please" in order to get the access you've requested. The records belong to you, not to Mr. Ste. Claire. Moreover, a public servant is not legally allowed to play this kind of game with public documents.
ReplyDeleteFlorida has one of the best open record laws in the country, and apparently the City of St. Augustine needs to learn that lesson the hard way. Let's see if taxpayers want to foot the bill for a losing court battle to keep Dana Ste. Claire's expenses hidden from inspection and scrutiny.
They can fight you over the reasonable cost of copies, so you might resubmit your letter as a request to inspect the records in person. They literally can't say no.
II. PUBLIC RECORDS
G. WHAT FEES MAY LAWFULLY BE IMPOSED FOR INSPECTING AND COPYING PUBLIC RECORDS
1. When may an agency charge a fee for the mere inspection of public records?
As noted in Op. Att'y Gen. Fla. 85-03 (1985), providing access to public records is a statutory duty imposed by the Legislature upon all record custodians and should not be considered a profit-making or revenue-generating operation. Thus, public information must be open for inspection without charge unless otherwise expressly provided by law. See, State ex rel. Davis v. McMillan, 38 So. 666 (Fla. 1905).
Section 119.07(4)(d), Florida Statutes, authorizes the imposition of a special service charge when the nature or volume of public records to be inspected is such as to require extensive use of information technology resources, or extensive clerical or supervisory assistance, or both. The charge must be reasonable and based on the labor or computer costs actually incurred by the agency. Thus, an agency may adopt a policy imposing a reasonable special service charge based on the actual labor cost for personnel who are required, due to the nature or volume of a public records request, to safeguard such records from loss or destruction during their inspection. Op. Att'y Gen. Fla. 00-11 (2000). In doing so, however, the county's policy should reflect no more than the actual cost of the personnel's time and be sensitive to accommodating the request in such a way as to ensure unfettered access while safeguarding the records. Id.
Let us consider:
ReplyDeleteSte. Claire has no records because he has done nothing in all the years he has worked for Joe Boles at CoSA.
His shameless dismissal of the citizenry by not supplying public records is unconscionable and wholly unacceptable.
"The Buffoon," as he is known in academic and historical quarters, has no choice but to pull together his papers and submit them for public scrutiny.
Ask for his annual evaluations, too. And track every single raise he has every received.
We want to know how he and Joe spent $3 MILLION DOLLAR$. Joe's not even a memory, but as long as Ste. Claire is paid by CoSA, he must abide by law as does everyone else.
There is also the huge question of the Seminole Nation of Florida. Let's see those memos, emails, whatever, too.
The time of reckoning is here.