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Mr. Rick Meshberger, This One's For You!
Had a bit of fun today. I copied the first sections of the Florida Constitution and parts of the Sunshine Law, FL
State Statute 119 and did a Public Records Request (PRR) at D1's office and then went down to the IT Department
and spent some time with Mr. Rick Meshberger. Yep. Good time if you consider being called a liar by a County
employee a good time. But I'll get to that in just a second.
I had been trying since September 12, 2011 to get a copy of the e-mail forwarded
to rupester from one of the County Commissioners' offices. Which Commissioner's office, I had no proof,
but I suspected D1's office and either Liz Lackovitch or Kathie England. So I requested:
"From: Lindy [mailto:mckinney6025@bellsouth.net]
"Sent: Monday, September 12, 2011 10:41 AM
"To: Commissioner, D1; Commissioner, D2; Commissioner, D3; Commissioner, D4; Commissioner, D5
"Subject: Sunshine Law request
"Commissioners:
"Invoking, FL SS 119 (The Sunshine Law), you forward to me via e-mail a copy of any
and all e-mails that Maureen Rupe sent to your office in the last two weeks. I also
request a copy of any e-mails you sent to Maureen Rupe in the last two weeks (especially
D1's office). I request the information no later than the close of business today because
I don't expect there to be very much (although I may be mistaken).
"Thank you for your attention to this matter.
"Sincerely,
"Linda McKinney"
Today, I had yet to receive the e-mail requested rather rudely. I mistakenly left out two words
in the first sentence: "Invoking, FL SS 119 (The Sunshine Law), I request you forward to me..." Rudeness
was not my intent, but I had rewritten it and apparently left out the words I intended to put in. Oh well. Too
late now.
Upon receipt of this request, D1's office sent the following response:
"From: Commissioner, D1
"To: Lindy ; Commissioner, D1 ; Commissioner, D2 ; Commissioner, D3 ; Commissioner, D4 ; Commissioner, D5
"Cc: Lewis, Sally A ; Tipton, Howard ; Lackovich, Mary B ; Reed, Dorothy E.
"Sent: Monday, September 12, 2011 1:36 PM
"Subject: RE: Sunshine Law request
"Sally,
"As the official Ombudsman, the attached request is being forwarded to you per our Public Records Policy.
"Kathie England
"Administrative Aide
"District 1 Commission Office
"Brevard County, Florida
"400 South Street, Suite 1A
"Titusville, FL 32780-7698
"Ph: 321-2646750
"Fax: 321-264-6751
"Email: Kathie.England@brevardcounty.us
"Please note:
"Florida has a very broad public records law.
Most written communications to or from the
offices of elected officials are public records
available to the public and media upon request.
"Your email communications may therefore be subject to public disclosure.
Why include all those other folks, I don't quite know. The County Manager? Really? For an e-mail request? Hmm...
Anyways, today I went to the Florida Constitution website page and the Florida State Statute (FL SS) 119, A.K.A. "The Sunshine
Law" web page and copied portions of those two items and took with me to D1's office the following:
"FLORIDA CONSTITUTION
"PREAMBLE
"We, the people of the State of Florida, being grateful to Almighty God for our constitutional
liberty, in order to secure its benefits, perfect our government, insure domestic tranquility,
maintain public order, and guarantee equal civil and political rights to all, do ordain and
establish this constitution.
"SECTION 1. -- Political power.- All political power is inherent in the people. The enunciation
herein of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or impair others retained by the people.
"SECTION 2. -- Basic rights.- All natural persons, female and male alike, are equal before the law and
have inalienable rights, among which are the right to enjoy and defend life and liberty, to pursue
happiness, to be rewarded for industry, and to acquire, possess and protect property; except that
the ownership, inheritance, disposition and possession of real property by aliens ineligible for
citizenship may be regulated or prohibited by law. No person shall be deprived of any right
because of race, religion, national origin, or physical disability.
"History.-Am. S.J.R. 917, 1974; adopted 1974; Am. proposed by Constitution Revision Commission,
Revision No. 9, 1998, filed with the Secretary of State May 5, 1998; adopted 1998.
"Title X
"PUBLIC OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND RECORDS
"CHAPTER 119
"PUBLIC RECORDS
"119.07 - Inspection and copying of records; photographing public records; fees; exemptions.-
"(1)(a)- Every person who has custody of a public record shall permit the record to be inspected and
copied by any person desiring to do so, at any reasonable time, under reasonable conditions, and under
supervision by the custodian of the public records.
"{ c} - A custodian of public records and his or her designee must acknowledge requests to
inspect or copy records promptly and respond to such requests in good faith. A good faith
response 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.
"(3)(a)- Any person shall have the right of access to public records for the purpose of making
photographs of the record while such record is in the possession, custody, and control of the
custodian of public records.
"(4)- The custodian of public records shall furnish a copy or a certified copy of the record
upon payment of the fee prescribed by law. If a fee is not prescribed by law, the following
fees are authorized:
"(a)1.- Up to 15 cents per one-sided copy for duplicated copies of not more than 14 inches by 81/2 inches;
"2.- No more than an additional 5 cents for each two-sided copy; and
"3.- For all other copies, the actual cost of duplication of the public record.
"(b)- The charge for copies of county maps or aerial photographs supplied by county
constitutional officers may also include a reasonable charge for the labor and overhead
associated with their duplication.
"( c) - An agency may charge up to $1 per copy for a certified copy of a public record.
"(d)- If the nature or volume of public records requested to be inspected or copied pursuant
to this subsection is such as to require extensive use of information technology resources or
extensive clerical or supervisory assistance by personnel of the agency involved, or both,
the agency may charge, in addition to the actual cost of duplication, a special service charge,
which shall be reasonable and shall be based on the cost incurred for such extensive use of
information technology resources or the labor cost of the personnel providing the service that
is actually incurred by the agency or attributable to the agency for the clerical and supervisory
assistance required, or both.
"FL SS 119 REQUEST:
"Under the Florida State Constitution and under FL SS 119, I request to electronically
inspect NOW the e-mails of Sep. 7, 2011 to Sep. 8, 2011 sent TO and FROM this office no
matter what e-mail address it originates from, in its entirety without deletion, correction,
or omission.
"Thank you for your obedience to the law.
"Linda McKinney"
When I arrived at D1, only Dottie Reed was there. After the "Hellos", I handed Ms Reed the request.
She looked it over and immediately said that she had to call the County Attorney before she did this.
I asked her why she had to do that when she had the State Statute right there in front of her. She said
she had never done anything like this before, so she had to make sure she did it right. She spoke to a
"Shannon" at the County Attorney's office and quoted the State Statute to Shannon and after a little
more talk said Shannon should ask me. So I spoke to Shannon. She wanted to know which e-mails I wanted to
see. I said it didn't matter which. I have the right to see them. When Shannon realized I wasn't going to
back down, she asked to speak to Ms Reed again, who said a few more words and hung up. Then Ms Reed said for
me to pull up a chair and brought up the e-mail program and the dates I was looking for. I looked through
the "Sent File" e-mail on her computer. Unfortunately,
the e-mail I was looking for was not forwarded from her computer so I could not find it. I asked if all of
the e-mails forwarded from that office to someone else would be visible on that computer and she said no.
She said that I'd have to go to the I.T. department to get it. I asked her where that was and she
said it was in Viera in Bldg. C but she called down to make sure. She told me that they were in
Room 203. To Viera I headed after leaving with Ms. Reed another two pieces of paper. They had the
Florida Constitution bits quoted above and the FL SS 119 bits, as well as the following:
"FL SS 119 REQUEST:
"Under the Florida State Constitution and under FL SS 119, I request that from now on EVERY
e-mail that is received at your office from Maureen Elizabeth Rupe, born August 2 1944, of
7185 Bright Ave., Port St. John, FL 32927, no matter what e-mail address it originates from,
be immediately forwarded to myself, Linda McKinney, at mckinney6025@bellsouth.net in its
entirety without deletion, correction, or omission.
"Since Maureen Elizabeth Rupe has apparently received this service, under the FL Constitution,
I demand and have the right to the same service under the law.
"Thank you for your obedience to the law.
"Linda McKinney"
You think they'll comply?
I admit that Ms. Reed was nice enough about it. Although why call the County Attorney's office, I have
no idea when all she had to do was look up the SS I quoted to see if I was quoting them properly. I'm sure she's
smart enough to read them for herself and she doesn't need an attorney to interpret them for her. Words mean things;
even words that are written as law.
To Viera and the Information Technology Department I went with my request to electronically view the records.
When I got to Bldg. C, second floor, I saw a man coming out of the men's room that was in the IT area, and asked him if he worked in
the IT department because I had looked for Room 203 and there were no doors in that area marked as such. He said he
did work there and asked if he could help me. I handed him my request to electronically inspect the records. He was a bit flummoxed
by it and handed it to another man who came down the hall. Instinct told me who the new guy was.
The "bathroom man" (I did not get his name, so sorry, Sir.) handed the new guy my request. He read my
request with the Florida Constitution and FL SS 119 quoted and, frowning, jerked his head and gruffed,
"Come on!" telling me to follow him, which I did.
We went into the IT department and into an area with three people -- two men and a woman (Glenda; very nice) --
working on computers. Rick told Glenda that I wanted to look at some e-mails. She started bringing the
e-mail program up and asked which ones I wanted. I said I'd start with D1 and wanted September 7th and 8th, between
7 p.m. on the 7th, and noon on the 8th. I said to the man who brought me in, "You must be Rick Meshberger." He
said that he was and asked, "And you are...?" I said, "Me." He said, "Me? Just me? You're not going to tell
me who you are?" I said, "No." You could see the wheels turning and he said, "Oh, I know who you are." I said,
"You're a smart man, I knew you'd figure it out."
Imagine my surprise when his next words were, "You're a liar." Yes, Mr. Rick Meshberger called me a liar after
my telling him he was a smart man. Not the best timing in the world, agree?
I said, "I'm a liar?"
He said, "Yes. You are."
I said, "Nice. You call me a liar in front of your employees. About what did I lie?"
Mr. Rick Meshberger then said, "Because you didn't put my e-mails on your website." Not posting
something is lying, in Mr. Rick Meshberger's book? Hmmm... Okay.
"Oh," said I, "you've been to my website?"
"Yes, I have" said he.
"And you want me to put your e-mails on my website? All of them?"
"Yes." He said, frowning at me and still grumpy, "All of them."
"Okay. Not a problem. Check my website tonight and I'll have them up there for you."
"I will," said he, confidently. They are available below and here.
Glenda started working, bringing up D1's group of e-mail addresses and looking in the "Sent" folders. I
don't remember who she checked first, but she checked Liz Lackovitch's and Fisher's. I do not remember if
she checked Dottie Reed's. The e-mail I requested did not turn up.
Then Mr. Rick Meshberger said that if this takes more than half an hour he'd have to charge me for it. I said something that
acknowledged my understanding of those terms. Something like, "I know." or "That's fine.", which, I don't remember.
Glenda looked in the other Districts' -- two's, four's and five's since I said I didn't have to check
D3's -- mailboxes looking at the times and dates I had delineated. (Amazing to see that two Commissioners had either
no e-mails in their "Sent" folders, or only about ten to fifteen, if that many! Where do their e-mails get sent from?)
Then Mr. Rick Meshberger left. That's when an interesting thing happened. Glenda, the nice IT person, brought up
a search engine that comes with all e-mail programs (as far as my experience shows) and typed in the parameters,
"rupe32927@earthlink.net",
"Sep. 7, 2011", "Sep. 8, 2011", in D1's e-mail storage area. Within five minutes the search engine that comes with the e-mail
program had found five e-mails that fit that description. Including the one that I had been trying to get from the County
via FL SS 119 requests since Sep. 12, 2011. This search engine found in five minutes the e-mail that was estimated by Mr. Rick Meshberger
to take approximately three hours' worth of county employee time at $21.75 per hour! (See the first e-mail from Mr. Rick
Meshberger below and here.)
Glenda then had to bring that e-mail up since she said that she couldn't click on the search engine's listing of it
and get to it that way. That took a bit longer since we had to wait for all of the e-mails in the sender's "Sent Folder"
file to load. Finally, they all loaded and Glenda clicked on the item I was interested in. "Is that it?" asked Glenda.
I said yes and asked, "Now what? Do I take a picture of it..?" She asked if I'd like it printed out and I said if she wanted
to. She did and she did. I have a hard copy in my possession.
That e-mail had been forwarded to rupester without comment from Comm. Robin Fisher's Administrative Aide,
Kathleen B. England (see her e-mail response to my request, above), without a PRR from rupester,
on Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 8:22 a.m. "on behalf of Commissioner, D1". There was no public
records request involved in order for rupester to receive that e-mail. There was only a few minutes worth of
reading and
Kathleen B. England, "on behalf of Commissioner, D1", forwarded the e-mail from me to the BOCC
to rupester.
Four days later, Sep. 12, 2011, Robin Fisher's Administrative Aide, Kathleen B. England sent me the e-mail above.
Why the run around? Why the forwarding of my e-mailed Sunshine Law request to the "official Ombudsman"? Why did
IT not cooperate by doing a search engine search like the one I saw Glenda do today after Mr. Rick Meshberger stepped out
of the room and that took about five minutes or less to find the e-mail I was looking for? Are they trying to milk the taxpayers
who dare to request information we have the right to receive from them anyways? How dare we do so!
The whole thing actually took about twenty-eight minutes because I checked both my watch and Glenda's computer clock
when it all started, so Mr. Rick Meshberger was out of luck on the twenty-something bucks he wanted to charge me. That's
probably thanks to the fact that Glenda used the built-in search engine. And I sincerely appreciate her doing so. But the
question remains as to why they are charging people for something that can take as little as five minutes for one e-mail and
claiming it takes half-an-hour or more?
Now, about those e-mails Mr. Rick Meshberger called me a liar over. I list them below as well as on the
Mr. Rick Meshberger e-mail page, "MeshMail"
just to be sure he's satisfied with the fact that I did put them up. If I am a liar for NOT posting any of his e-mails, then
I must be telling double the truth by posting them twice. Right?
In order to appease Mr. Rick Meshberger's sensibilities (apparently strongly offended), I give you the e-mail exchange between
Mr. Rick Meshberger and myself. Notice the first one I received from Mr. Rick Meshberger has two e-mails in one. Almost
as if he waited to send the e-mail after writing it, and then sent it to me without my responding to him.
I have checked my e-mails and all the folders in which I may have put a response to Mr. Rick Meshberger, but
there is no response to the bottom portion of the e-mail because, notice no time/date stamp, it was not sent to me.
To the best of my knowledge, this is the first e-mail I received from Mr. Rick Meshberger.
I post the e-mails with no further comment so that Mr. Rick Meshberger does not take offense and deem
it necessary to call me a liar in front of witnesses again. The ONLY changes I make to them are the signature blocks will
be left off after the first e-mail exchanges. That way you don't have to scroll down through my two sayings and his county
employee info every time. Fair enough? Good. Enjoy.
"From: Meshberger, Rick L
"To: mckinney6025@bellsouth.net
"Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2011 3:16 PM
"Subject: Brevard County Public records request
"Ms. Mckinney,
"I just wanted to let you know that your public records request is on hold until I get
authorization to proceed. See my email below.
"Thank you,
"Rick Meshberger
"Support Services Manager
"Information Technology Dept
"Brevard County BOCC
"PH: 321-617-7395
"Ms. McKinney,
"You submitted a public records request on 9/12/2011 and was forwarded to the IT department
to fulfill. It is estimated that this search and compilation will take approximately 3
hours to perform. The charges for this work will be based on the lowest paid employee capable
of doing the work which is $21.75 per hour. Again, 3 hours is only an estimate but I need your
authorization to proceed.
"Rick Meshberger
"Support Services Manager
"Information Technology Dept
"Brevard County BOCC
"PH: 321-617-7395
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Under Florida Law, email addresses are Public Records. If you do not want your e-mail
address released in response to public record requests, do not send electronic mail
to this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone or in writing."
To which I responded:
"From: Lindy [mailto:mckinney6025@bellsouth.net]
"Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 12:36 AM
To: Meshberger, Rick L
"Subject: Re: Brevard County Public records request
"Mr. Meshbrger,
"I'll further specify my time frame: BETWEEN Sept. 7th at 7:00 P.M. and Sept. 8th at 12:00 NOON,
FROM FISHER, Bolin, Nelson, Anderson TO MAUREEN RUPE. That should really narrow it down for you.
"I remind you that FL SS 119 states: "If the nature or volume of public records requested to be inspected
or copied pursuant to this subsection is such as to require extensive use of information technology
resources or extensive clerical or supervisory assistance by personnel of the agency involved,
or both, the agency may charge, in addition to the actual cost of duplication, a special service
charge..." I doubt that this request is now considered "extensive" since I narrowed the search to
four people and seventeen hours.Since Fisher's office was closed Wednesday (Sept. 7th) after 5:00
p.m. and unless he sent the e-mail to Rupe via his cell phone or other portable electronic device,
I suggest you focus your search on Sept. 8th in the hours between open of business (about 8:00
a.m.?) to the time of her reply received by all five of the Commissioners at 11:52 a.m. Setting
these search parameters on a computer and leaving for coffee is neither extensive use of IT, nor
is it extensive clerical or supervisory assistance. I have been a fluent computer user since before
Windows 3.1 -- DOS is my first language -- so I know what I am talking about. I know my rights,
Sir. I shall not be bamboozled.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0100-0199/0119/0119.html
"119.07 3.(d) If the nature or volume of public records requested to be inspected or copied pursuant to
this subsection is such as to require extensive use of information technology resources or extensive
clerical or supervisory assistance by personnel of the agency involved, or both, the agency may charge,
in addition to the actual cost of duplication, a special service charge, which shall be reasonable and
shall be based on the cost incurred for such extensive use of information technology resources or the
labor cost of the personnel providing the service that is actually incurred by the agency or
attributable to the agency for the clerical and supervisory assistance required, or both.
"Linda McKinney
_____________________________________
"www.spacecoastconservative.com
"www.flickr.com/photos/lindymck
"http://spacecoastconservative.blogspot.com
"Remember: If the City/County/State/Nation can do it to your fellow citizen, they can do it to you, too. Stand
up for your neighbor, because if you don't, the City/County/State/Nation will come for you next.
"Remember: Anyone who does not give you a wake-up call when they see you being stupid, self-destructive,
or both, just plain doesn't care about you. It's those of us who do wake you up who care."
To which Mr. Rick Meshberger responded:
"From: Meshberger, Rick L
"To: Lindy
"Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 9:56 AM
"Subject: RE: Brevard County Public records request
"Ms. McKinney,
"Thank you for response. By narrowing down the time like you did should reduce our search down to
approximately 1 hour. Doing a search of all mailboxes is not as simple as you described. My
employee has to search each mailbox separately, compile any results, go on to the next until
all mailboxes have been searched. He/she must then go through each and every email to make
sure it is deemed public record and to redact any private information such as SSN and so on.
I am just trying to do my job and do not have any motive whether you get this information or not.
It does not matter to me. But according to the County’s Administrative Order (AO-47) any request
requiring more than 30 minutes is chargeable.
"Based on the 1 hour of estimated time that it will take to process this request I need your
authorization to proceed. If so, what format of output is desired. We can print the results,
create a PST (Outlook file) and write it to a CD or create an image of the email and write that to CD.
"Rick Meshberger"
signature info, etc.
I responded:
"From: Lindy [mailto:mckinney6025@bellsouth.net]
"Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 1:58 PM
"To: Meshberger, Rick L
"Cc: Commissioner, D1; Commissioner, D2; Commissioner, D3; Commissioner, D4; Commissioner, D5
"Subject: Re: Brevard County Public records request
"Mr. Meshberger,
"I do not ask that you search ALL mailboxes. I ask that you search three: FISHER first. This way
if you find it in the first search, you don't have to do the other two. Then I ask that you search
BOLIN and NELSON in that order. I have reduced the request to the hours between 7 PM Sep. 7th and
NOON Sep. 8th. I ask that you first search the hours between 8 AM and NOON Sep. 8th because that's
when I suspect FISHER sent my e-mail to Rupe. Given these parameters, I see no way for you to
estimate a "time certain" as to how long it will take to do a search for my GUARANTEED UNDER
FL SS 119 information. IF after the search done under my direction you can prove that an
employee actually took even half an hour to complete the task -- actually working on it,
and not just having it run in the background while they are doing something else -- then
you may figure a bill for me at that time. Please send the bill to Maureen Rupe at 7185
Bright Ave. Port St. John, FL 32927. She received $595.50 worth of PRINTED RECORDS FREE
OF CHARGE Sep. 29, 2009 and I'm sure she'd be happy to pay her fair share for someone who
wants one little bitty e-mail forwarded. If she is unwilling to pay, then I am sure that
the County would like to treat us all fairly and I request that this bill be applied to
the same $595.50 worth of FREE RECORDS I should receive that Rupe received in 2009. Just
to be clear, I do NOT request a PRINTED version, I can print it myself. Just FORWARD THE
E-MAIL sent from the Commissioner TO Rupe during that time frame. I'm sure that would be
a cheap thing for her to pay.
"Linda McKinney"
signature block, etc.
He responded:
"From: Meshberger, Rick L
"To: Lindy
"Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 2:22 PM
"Subject: RE: Brevard County Public records request
"Ms. McKinney,
"As I have stated the amount of time necessary to compile with your request could take as
much as 1 hour to complete. Obviously if we do the search and find the email you’re
looking for right away as you suggested then you will not be charged if the amount of
work takes less than 30 minutes. But since you have not giving me authorization to
proceed then I am forward your email below to the County Attorney’s office for their direction.
"Rick Meshberger"
signature block, etc.
To which I responded:
"From: Lindy [mailto:mckinney6025@bellsouth.net]
"Sent: Friday, September 16, 2011 4:40 PM
"To: Meshberger, Rick L
"Subject: Re: Brevard County Public records request
"Mr. Meshberger,
"Since you work for me and I pay your wages (the same for those under you), I see no need to pay
extra for work that I am asking you to do for the fist time in months. As to forwarding my e-mail
to the USELESS County Attorney's office, Hoorah for you! Feel better?
"Now, at my direction, do NOT do the search. I shall find another way to get the information
and I shall get it without your idiocy and assistance. Grow up.
"Linda McKinney"
signature block, etc.
That is where it stood until today. I did find another way to get
the information and he did comply with
my request. Maybe next time he should just do it the easy way.
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Remember: Anyone who does not give you a wake-up call when they see you being stupid, self-destructive, or both, just plain
doesn't care about you. It's those of us who do wake you up who care.
