The Redacted, part 3: DoE is just making stuff up with its Jefferson County public records exemptions

Some high-ranking Florida official was dumb enough to say in an email that he/she did not want DoE/Jefferson investigation public records disclosed; so DoE is humiliating itself to hide the name.

The Redacted, part 1: Are Jacob Oliva and Manny Diaz the DoE/Jefferson scandal's mystery names?

The Redacted, part 2: The altered DoE/Jefferson public records are crime scenes. Treat them so.

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It’s illegal to redact a public record in Florida without citing an exemption for doing so.

So the Florida Department of Education knew it was breaking the law by redacting the names and whatever other words are contained in the two DoE/Jefferson scandal documents I’ve posted below. They were released as part of a big, otherwise unredacted document dump a few months ago. You can get the necessary background on that in the Part 1 and 2 links posted above.

A few weeks ago, I demanded that DoE stop breaking the law and either cite the exemptions or produce the unredacted records. I want to test my hypothesis that current and former Florida Commissioners of Education Manny Diaz and Jacob Oliva are likely to be among the redacted names.

They aren’t even trying. It’s just a middle finger to the public.

Finally, on Nov. 15, DoE cited two exemptions. And these exemptions obviously, hilariously fail to even remotely justify the redacted names. Here they are:

Chapter 119.071(2)(c )1: Active criminal intelligence information and active criminal investigative information are exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution.

LOL, nobody in Florida state government (as opposed to the active federal grand jury) is investigating the DoE/Jefferson, for which the Inspector General closed its sham inquiry more than 16 months ago. The whole point of the “investigation” was to avoid investigation. The emails in question literally say the state is “getting ready to close our complaint.” Moreover, the entire records dump requested by Tampa Bay Times reporter Lawrence Mower 16 months ago is about DoE/Jefferson investigative records. So if those few names are “criminal intelligence,” so is literally everything else.

Here is the other exemption cited. Note the parts in bold:

Chapter 119.071(d)1. A public record that was prepared by an agency attorney (including an attorney employed or retained by the agency or employed or retained by another public officer or agency to protect or represent the interests of the agency having custody of the record) or prepared at the attorney’s express direction, that reflects a mental impression, conclusion, litigation strategy, or legal theory of the attorney or the agency, and that was prepared exclusively for civil or criminal litigation or for adversarial administrative proceedings, or that was prepared in anticipation of imminent civil or criminal litigation or imminent adversarial administrative proceedings, is exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution until the conclusion of the litigation or adversarial administrative proceedings. For purposes of capital collateral litigation as set forth in s. 27.7001, the Attorney General’s office is entitled to claim this exemption for those public records prepared for direct appeal as well as for all capital collateral litigation after direct appeal until execution of sentence or imposition of a life sentence.

I suppose DoE’s General Counsel Andrew B. King (or a previous general counsel or staff member) could trigger the “prepared by an agency attorney” clause if they are the redacted names. But the redaction demands much more than just attorney status.

To this point, the DoE/Jefferson scandal has been thoroughly covered-up by the state of Florida. Thus, these emails were not “prepared exclusively for civil or criminal litigation or for adversarial administrative proceedings, or that was prepared in anticipation of imminent civil or criminal litigation or imminent adversarial administrative proceedings.”

There have been so such state proceedings. None are contemplated, much less imminent — unless maybe somebody thinks somebody is about to get indicted by the federal grand jury.

If not, this exemption does not apply to those emails or the redactions.

Daring people to sue

I always expect bad faith from Florida state government; and I’m rarely surprised.

In this case, they’re clearly just throwing some manure at the wall to cite an exemption and force somebody like me or the Tampa Bay Times to sue. It’s a clear blocking/delaying tactic.

I’ll see what I can do to oblige them. More to come.