The Hair Of The Dog

Joel Chandler has started a new blog named FOGWatch. Florida Open Government Watch.


What has intrigued me about the stories that Joel has shared regarding public records requests is how similar his experience has been to that of those who try to advocate for children with disabilities. You would have to read all of his posts on IAmTroublemaker and read all of the links that give first hand information how some public school officials disregard some of the laws that they are supposed to enforce to see what I am talking about.

Today, Joel has a blog post titled "Hair Trigger". Apparently, he has been accused of "filing law suits" at the drop of a dime, or maybe it it is at the drop of $23.50.

This accusation resonates with me because, in the past, I also have been accused of "always filing lawsuits" and belonging to an organization that "all they do is file lawsuits." Those people make false accusations because they are ignorant of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)and the procedural safeguards that are written into the regulations. "State Complaints" are not "lawsuits."


Similar to what Joel speaks directly to below, IDEA also has a provision that attorney fees can be awarded to a parent that brings a due process suit against a local education agency and "wins." Similar to what Joel speaks directly to below, in order to "win" your attorney fees, you must "file a lawsuit." If a parent goes to an attorney because there is a problem with the Individualized Education Plan (IEP), the parent is going to have to pay this lawyer. Up until the point that the parent actually wins the due process, they are paying on their own. Despite how "wrong" a school district is, they, the school systems, are not faced with having this additional cost of keeping their position. Most parents are pretty vocal about their anger towards school systems, and will inadvertently let the District know that they have finally had enough and are "going to sue", at which point the District can concede some point, which starts the process over again. In the mean time, the parent is paying out of pocket attempting to obtain what should be a "free and appropriate public education."

Parents and attorneys that have years of experience see that school systems treat parents and attorneys as suckers because no one likes to "file a lawsuit" at the drop of the dime, or is it the split of a hair?

The reason I choose to say that school systems treat parents and attorneys as suckers is found in Joel's very last sentence below: "the requester foots the bill for making the custodian do what they should have done in the first place."

Hair Trigger: "It may seem to the uninitiated that we have a bit of a hair trigger when it comes to public records litigation. After all, over the past couple of years we’ve filed an average of one public records lawsuit every other month.

Here’s the logic for our willingness to file lawsuits:

•Under Florida law, requesters who have been denied access to non-exempt records have no real recourse except to ask the courts to intervene.

•Under Florida law, requesters that take legal action against the custodian of a public record that violates FS 119, are entitled to legal fees and expenses if the case is settled in favor of public access.

•Under Florida law, financial liability does not attach to the custodian until a lawsuit has been filed.

•Under Florida law, if a requester hires an attorney to try and cajole the custodian of a public record to obey the law and the custodian complies before a suit is filed, the requester is left holding the bag for the legal expenses. This happens far too often. A private citizen seeks access to non-exempt records; the custodian of the records denies access; the requester hires an attorney to compel access; just before a lawsuit is filed the custodian complies with the law; the requester foots the bill for making the custodian do what they should have done in the first place."

Citizens Have To Be Brave To Be Free - Public Agencies Just Have To Be Brazen And Not Follow Their Own Laws

The law says we, the citizens, have the burden:




The Rationale: "•According to the Governor’s Commission On Open Government Reform “In practice, the burden of enforcing violations of Florida’s open meetings and public records laws generally falls to citizens who have few alternatives other than seeking an injunction or filing suit in civil court to compel compliance.”"


Who watches us, the citizens, when we follow the law?

Joel Chandler writes:

Email to Gerald Bailey, Commissioner of the FDLE Regarding Suspected Abuse of FCIC/NCIC: ......."During our conversation I explained to Mr. Taveras that the ZPD inquiries of me in response to a public records request were not isolated events. Over the past eighteen months or so FCIC/NCIC has been accessed at least forty-three times by multiple agencies in order to run queries of my name. When the date and time stamps of those queries are compared to news reports about my public records advocacy and the public records requests a disturbing nexus becomes obvious. Of course, during this period of time I have not been the subject of a traffic stop or any other actual criminal investigation."


And then, there are those who watch from afar:

Everyone Is Welcome to Visit www.FOGWatch.org: "Here are some of our governmental visitors:

United States Senate, US Department of Homeland Security, US Department of Energy, the National Security Agency (NSA), US Army Intelligence, US Naval Intelligence, Florida Department of Children and Families, City of New Port Richey, City of Zephyrhills, Broward County Public Schools, Florida Department of Health, City of Lakeland, Polk County Sheriff’s Office, and of course one of our most frequent visitors, the Zephyrhills Police Department."

Public Schools Are Part Of The System

Transparency is a word that seems to have fallen into the world of political obfuscation.

It is coming more and more obvious to me that the only entity that can, or will, create transparency and accountability of our public agencies.

Public agencies fight being transparent and accountable. Shutting up the public is one way they do it. They use some ingenious and strong acts to insure that the public shuts up.


The scary part is, our leaders of our public agencies abuse their power and authority when they don't like what citizens do, even when the citizens are doing exactly what our leaders of our public agencies should be knowledgeable of and supportive of.

Read this link, and make sure you read the link at the bottom where the Police Captain makes a report because the citizen received information that the Police Captain's agency freely gave the citizen after the agency refused to respond the a public records request.

For those who have ever had to deal with a public school system, this story seems all so real.

Captain Robert McKinney

Learn This: "Does It Matter?"

I don't know Joel Chandler, but I have written about him before. I haven't checked his website for a while, but for some reason I decided to check it yesterday. He hasn't posted anything for months, but he is back at it again.

One aspect of what Joel writes about resonates with me because of how some people within the Hillsborough County District Schools treated me over the years. If you read the recent set of Joel's blog entries, you will note that he tries to bring to light the issue of how at a least a few of those in power positions such as those who work in law enforcement and school systems seem to disrepect the laws and the citizens that they are supposed to be serving.

My understanding of what he writes is that he does not make a blanket condemnation of all of those who work within the system. However, the fact that the system seems to tolerate by rationalized reasons and lack of action those within the system that appear to be repeat offenders should give us cause to think that it matters.


What brought me to spend thousands of dollars and hours over a span of fifteen or more years of my life trying to advocate for my disabled child was being lied to and intimidated by those within the school system that had a cavalier attitude about the special education laws that they were supposed to be in compliance with.

I like the phrase that Joel uses when someone uses their position of assumed authority to ask questions that are aimed at intimidation more than fact finding. The question is, "Does it matter?".

Polk County Sheriff's Office Asks Odd Questions....:

"Within a couple of hours Public Information Officer Wood called to ask if I was a member of the media. I asked “Does it matter?” She replied “Yes, it does.” She went on to explain that many law enforcement records are exempt and that she needed to know if I was member of the press.

It is true that some LE records are exempt. The list is not as all encompassing as Ms. Wood was trying to make it sound.

I told her that I was making the request as a private citizen as provided by the Florida Constitution and FS 119. She again asked “Are you a member of the press? Are you a member of the print media or a news station in Tampa Bay?”

What possible difference would any of that make? The “Press” is not afforded some special set of public records privileges that the rest of us are not. To even ask seems inappropriate. I’m making a PRR because I can. That’s it. I’m not asking because I’m part of a group or because I make living in a certain way.


Public officials should not ask questions about the requester of a public record. They should do their job and produce the records. If that is too demanding then they should seek to change the law or find another line of work."

To see first hand how Joel asks this question, watch the video found here:"...free enough....": "'...free enough....'"


After reading the other recent blog post's by Joel, it does give one reason to question the very ones that are sworn to uphold the law, and their own policies.

We should all be asking "Does It Matter?"!!!