Florida City Officials Spend $50,000 To Find Out Who Gave Journalists A Public Record
from the pettiest-cash-of-all dept
The city government of Tamarac, Florida has found a novel way to spend taxpayers' money: paying someone to find out who handed public records to someone entitled to receive public records. (h/t Peter Bonilla)
The cost to Tamarac taxpayers will be as much as $50,000 for the city to hire a private investigator to figure out who gave public records to a reporter, according to records released Friday.
City leaders are scheduled to approve hiring the law firm of Kim Vaughan Lerner on Wednesday to conduct a “forensic” search to try to find who gave the South Florida Sun Sentinel a memo that is a public record in Florida.
$50,000 from taxpayers to hire someone taxpayers likely don't believe needs to be hired to discover the source of records taxpayers are entitled to have access to. An investigation so self-serving the city can barely be bothered to defend it. But since the city holds the power and the taxpayers' purse strings, the investigation will continue.
Why are city leaders so hot and bothered they're willing to chase the paper trail of a presumptive public record that ended up in the hands of journalists? Well, it sure as shit isn't because they're concerned in any way about the public they're supposed to be serving.
No, this expensive paper chase is the result of city leaders being embarrassed by their own misuse of public funds. The budget amendments handed to the Sun Sentinel included plenty of perks for city employees -- several of which directly benefited the people approving the amendments. This $50,000 will just be more ill-spent taxpayer "revenue," joining other public expenditures that have done nothing but reward city legislators for being bad stewards.
The city memo in dispute had outlined several budget amendments that would benefit the city commissioners themselves, including new retirement, full health benefits, and stipends for technology and education.
Those budget amendments, which have since been scrapped from being placed on a city agenda, came within months of other forms of spending that leaders passed for themselves to do their part-time job. That included a $25,000 personal initiative fund and a $15,000 local travel fund, on top of their salary, car and phone allowances, and out-of-town travel money.
The $50,000 will be spent interviewing officials and staffers to determine who "leaked" presumptively-public information to the public. This includes reviewing communications sent and received by everyone currently under this super-weird form of suspicion, which apparently includes anyone with access to the budget documents. There's no word yet whether this internal investigation will manifest outwardly, but one suspects city officials willing to spend $50,000 investigating the source of public info won't shy away from targeting the journalists who published the information.
No commissioner expressed any dismay with the outsized set of perks being handed to them or the willingness to waste money investigating a non-existent breach/leak. But one commissioner mistook her public platform for a mirror, issuing this… um… statement:
Commissioner Debra Placko chastised whoever gave out the information, saying at last week’s meeting, “Shame on you for being despicable.”
LOL. "Despicable" is spending $50,000 to find and punish the person who embarrassed you using nothing more than public records anyone could have obtained. Good luck with that. And good luck with your next election run, charlatans A-D (the decision to hire an investigator passed 4-1). This is not just stupid. It's expensive. And it does nothing more than show the public who their servants are actually serving.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: florida, foia, private investigator, public records, tamarac, transparency
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
I miss when corrupt officals actually got punished.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
some officials just cant get through public funds quick enough!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I expect this is $50,000 worth of money laundering in the guise of "investigation."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
"Shame on you for following the law"
I probably shouldn't be surprised at a politician saying that out loud intending for everyone it hear it, yet I am.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
The source of the public records is the government itself, so why spend $50,000 investigating when they can look in the mirror?
Your money laundering theory makes a lot of sense in this light.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Where'$ it going?
Any bets on the "private inve$tigator" conducting this "foren$ic inve$stigation" being related to one of the members of the city clowncil?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Thanks for the confirmation crooks
Data leaks that they're abusing their power and taxpayer money for personal gain and their response is... to abuse their power and taxpayer money to find out who told the public how corrupt they are.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Where'$ it going?
Might as well bet on whether the sun will or will not rise tomorrow.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Commissioners gang bang
Either Kim Vaughan Lerner is tongue massaging the commissioners privates or she is someone's sister-in-law or cousin.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
One $15,000 for local travel, please.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
On that note, how much did it cost for DeSantis to sic the Gestapo on that whistleblower for her sources?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
can't hbe bothered to hid the coruption
when spending other peoples money it is easy to give yourself inappropriate benefits and perks. then when the corruption is brought to light start a witch hunt and spend more money to cover it all up! while punishing others for your crimes!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Could Have Been Worse
The newspaper could have simply made a public records request (S:119.07). City would no doubt refuse to produce. The Sun-Sentinel would then have gotten its legal fees as well as extra publicity for their report of intended improper spending.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Investigation Should be Continue
I think Investigation should be continued until leaders get punishment because this is a public fund that must be used for the improvement of the city.
https://www.smartscrapers.com/ecommerce-data-scraping/
[ link to this | view in thread ]
When corrupt officals actually got punished
I'm not entirely sure such a time existed. Though there sure was a time when we believed corrupt officials actually got punished.
When they don't then we essentially have an aristocracy, and they tend to behave like aristocrats.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Abusing power and taxpayer money to find the leak
When their first response is to seek to find the whistleblower, and to spend public funds in order to do just that, it tells me officials believe their job is not to honestly fulfill their duties, but to keep up appearances that they are fulfilling their duties.
It's how we get government departments openly lying to congress about how they're not violating human rights.
[ link to this | view in thread ]