Public Profile

MaryEllen Elia is a very powerful and influential woman in the city of Tampa and amongst the members of the Hillsborough County School Board. Actually she is currently the Superintendent of that school board and has been so since May of 2005. Over the past few years she has proved to be a figure that has drawn both praise and criticism. She has dealt with issues ranging from schools that are falling apart to the busing issue that affected almost half of the children in Hillsborough County. Elia’s resume does not read quite as well as some of the candidates that applied for the very job she currently holds. At no point in her career has she ever been a superintendent or even an assistant superintendent before, in fact she never has even been a principal of a school before. All that being said she was still given the opportunity to run the Hillsborough County School system and to do what she believes is best for it.

Her experience does include being the chief facilities officer for the Hillsborough County School Board from 2003 to 2005. In addition to that one of her major accomplishments was helping to create the magnet schools program in Hillsborough County during the year of 1991. For her efforts she won the Magnet Schools of America Presidential Leadership Award which is an accomplishment in and of itself. All of this started when Elia joined the Hillsborough district in 1986 as a reading resource teacher at Plant High School. Her education consist of a bachelors of arts and history degree from Daeman College, and a master’s of professional studies in K-12 reading along with a master’s of education in social studies from the University of Buffalo.

To this point in her tenure her stint as superintendent has been viewed by some as a disaster and by others as a success. While that can be said about almost every pubic official this time it is truer than ever. It seems every issue that comes across Elia’s desk is a major one and it also seems to catch the attention of the press, and it does so quickly. The biggest hot button issue that has got the entire area in a firestorm is the issue with busing and how it is negatively affecting the children of Hillsborough County. All of these issues arose when the county decided one good way to cut back on spending was to be more efficient and place bus stops farther apart, cancel out special bus stops for to families that live less than two miles from the school their child attends and also cut bus services to a variety of after school day care centers. Of course all of this was made much worse with the extreme lack of communication by the school board. Once the parents of the community caught wind of these changes they all started to call in around the same time which leads to jammed phone lines and mass confusion. It seems that they were trying to implement the plan without all the pieces in place as in late 2009 or early 2010 they are going to have a website available to parents to check the bus stops and routes of buses. After much haggling back and forth over how to fix this problem it seems that the complaints have quieted done a bit but this problem is far from solved and probably will get worse before it gets better.

Another major black eye for Elia is the complaint filed on the behalf of three disabled students in early October of 2008. This complaint was filed with the Florida Department of Education and caught Elia by complete surprise as she first learned about it the day after the complaint was filed. As it reads the complaint is alleging that the Hillsborough County School system is nothing more than a pipeline to the schools to the local prisons. While everyone involved believes this is a statewide problem it is the district that is run by Elia that was called to task and must once again respond with a quick and steady solution. To make matters worse for Elia the three disabled student’s named in the case were all minorities so she not only has the disability issue to concern herself with by the possible allegation of discrimination as well. As it turns out one of the worse things about this case is again Elia seemed completely unaware of the situation at hand until it was in the forefront of both the newspapers and the communities’ collective thoughts. This issue is still unresolved and looks to be a very long issue that will not be resolved shortly or with any easy solutions.

As the superintendent of one of the largest schools districts in the nation money is becoming a chief concern for Elia. Like the rest of the nation money is becoming hard to come by and has contributed greatly to some of the problems the school board has had to face over the past year. As recently as late October 2008 Elia herself has made pleas to the Florida State Board for additional funds to help with all the increased prices they are seeing from rising electricity bills to the cost of new books for students. But first she has to convince the board to stop cutting cost like the cut of 12.6 percent she recently saw firsthand her in Hillsborough County. Efficiency is the name of the game but it is hard to be efficient when even the things that you have are being taken away and the number of students increases every year. But out of all the challenges she is facing this is one that she will have the backing from the entire community as it is not due to anything she has any control over. But what the public does not realize is that this issue is a key factor in all the other issues facing the district. From the busing issues all the way to the lack of time and facilities for the disabled children in the schools.
In closing most of the concerns of the community stemming from the tenure of MaryEllen Elia revolve around a lack of communication. The busing issue revolves around parents not knowing where their kid’s bus stops are. When issues with the MealPay program came about no parents were aware of this issue either until after the kids came home and the schools had to make special accommodations to feed them. In fact Elia herself stated that this is a problem when she expressed the thought that they are always looking at ways to expand the lines of communication with parents so they can be better prepared for any changes that are ongoing. To this point in her tenure this is how she will be remembered, not as the effective leader everyone thought she was going to be, but as the leader of a school board that does not feel the need to communicate with the public. Se still has time to change this impression but will have to turn things around quickly and do it in a struggling economy where money will be hard to come by.

Clip File Review

During our first clip file collection the overwhelming amount of news, from the local government perspective, came from the Hillsborough County Public Schools. The hot topic was the busing situation and what Superintendent MaryEllen Elia was going to do to help correct the issues at hand. It seemed the main issue stemmed from the lack of communication to parents and principals about the changes in bus routes, bus stops and some busing availability all together. It was stated in several articles that about 90,000 students ride buses in Hillsborough County and only 1 percent called in with a complaint. This seemed to be the stance that Elia was taking then the press got a hold of the story and the apologies were fast and furious. In addition to the busing issue there were also articles about the Mealpay Plus program, which helps kids pay for their meals at school. The system went down and all this was going on at the same time as the busing situation so this did not get nearly the attention it would have received. All the children were fed and it was just a temporary issue but none the less another black-eye for the Hillsborough County School Board.

The second clip file was not much different in the fact that most of the articles on government related topics were about the school board. There was yet another article with Elia talking about how no single plan will fix all the problems and it is going to take a lot of effort and time to fix the wrongs that have been done. Another article about the schools was talking about how there is a plan in place to give kids a short day each month. This short day each month would consist of the children getting out of school two hours early and would allow the teachers more time to lay out there lessons plans for the coming weeks. Lastly there was also an article about a teacher’s aide being accused of soliciting sex which lead to an arrest and jail time at the Orient Road Jail.

In our third and final clip file of the semester there was not a lot of local news going on as most of the media was squarely focus on the election. That being said there was a follow up article on the proposal to release students early once a month. This article actually had the dates of the early releases and talked about what steps still needed to be taken to complete this change. During this same timeframe the school board named two new principals, Gloria Waite at Mabry Elementary and Lynn Roberts at USF/Patel Partnership Elementary.

In closing this was a rough time for the school board, from the busing issues all the way down to how those questions were answered. These issues will eventually clear up but this will leave a scar for quite awhile, that could raise it head at anytime.

Trial Post

On October twenty-eighth of two-thousand and eight I was able to attend the trail of a convicted felon. The trail was entitled a Jimmy Rice trail and was to help determine if the convicted felon was to remain in a corrections facility indefinitely. I do not feel comfortable using the accused name but will use all of the remaining facts I gathered while attending this trail. The judge presiding over this case was J Rogers Padgett and the state attorneys assigned to this case were Anthony Duran and Daniel Ampard while the defense attorneys were Robert Mactavish and Maria Pavlidis. This trail had six jurors in attendance and two different doctors spoke during the trail. While I was not able to obtain the name of the first doctor that spoke the second doctor was Dean Cauley of Port Charlotte Florida. The defendant was originally charged with a sexual offense back on August fifteenth in two-thousand and was charged with a second offense on June thirteenth two-thousand and one. In my opinion the most intriguing part of this trail was not the participants involved instead it was the law being enacted.

What I was able to learn about while attending this trail was the law name the Jimmy Ryce Law. Actually its full name is Jimmy Ryce Involuntary Civil Commitment for Sexual Violent Predators’ Treatment and Care Act. While saying all of that is quite a mouthful what it really is saying is that once a sexual predator is done serving his or her time they actually get sent to a separate facility, usually the Florida Civil Commitment Facility, to stay indefinitely or until they are deemed able to function in society without committing another sexual crime. By many peoples standards this might not seem fair seeing that for a lot of the people in these facilities this law was passed after they were already in jail. No matter if they were in jail before this was passed or not they are still being viewed exactly the same. The process starts by a doctor looking at the inmate and then determining if he or she is a candidate to be moved into one of these facilities upon release. That being said this is simply based on that opinion and their behavior with they time at the jail and there of course is no way to prove if someone will or will not commit another criminal act of a sexual nature. From the view of the defense they are stating that the person was tried and given a sentence which they have now served and it is time for their release. During this trail the state must prove three things: first they must prove that a prior offense occurs, secondly they must prove the person has a mental abnormality, and finally they must prove that this person is likely to commit another sexual related crime. If all of these are done then in all likely hood the person will spend the majority of his or her life at this commitment facility. After having a conversation with Robert Mactavish he was not in favor of this law or trail for that matter. He stated on many occasions the inmates are visited by doctors that have reviewed their cases and are trying to make a determination as to whether to send them to the commitment facility or not. Upon the doctors arrival the inmates sometimes are asked questions about if they have different desires or not and many times the answers to these questions make the case for the doctors.

After seeing this particular trial I am not easily swayed in favor of someone that has been tried and proven guilty. That being said I am not sure if changing a law and making someone stay in jail even after their time is up is the right thing to do. But if this decision is being made by a professional and they believe it is going to prevent something that could destroy another persons life then I am all for it. Overall this trail was very interesting and I must say I felt a bit odd watching all of this unfold. It was very different watching the fate of someone’s life be shaped right in front of my eyes. In addition to that since the original crime happened over eight years ago you tend to look at the side of the person they are trying to keep longer than was originally sentenced and forget that this person just eight short years ago made someone’s life very difficult. Honestly it gave me a lot more respect for the judges and staff that do this each and everyday. In addition to those folks I am now starting to see how difficult it would be to be a reporter on this beat. As I write this piece I wonder to myself how many lives did this person effect and why does he or she ever deserve to be on the streets again. It is very hard to take off your judgmental hat just write about the facts and not interject any opinion of your own. This is an experience I will not soon forget and actual might do again sometime on my own just to learn a little bit more.

Purchasing Process/Hillsborough County Public Schools

In order to find out the purchasing policies and procedures of the Hillsborough County Public Schools system I paid a visit to the General Manager of Procurement, Jean R. Bowman. She was kind enough to take thirty minutes out of her busy schedule to sit down with me and answer a few questions. To get a better understanding of how the whole process works we looked at an example of what is like to make a purchase with all of the schools in the county in mind.

Bowman thought the best case we could look at together would be the purchase of fire extinguishers, which was coded ITB # 8066-DST Fire Extinguishers. The ITB stands for invitation to bid on the purchase which is where we are going to begin. Bowman and her staff maintain a list of all potential bidders by category of commodity and include the names of all persons that request a placement on a particular bid. From that point sealed bids are requested for any single purchase of equipment or service that exceeds the bid amount specified in the State Board of Administration rules. These sealed bids shall be received at the time, date and place designated in the request for bids. Bids that are turned in after the designated time will not be accepted or considered. Each and every bid will be opened publicly by an employee of the school board and then the name of the bidder and the amount will be read aloud. Bowman then must evaluate the competing bids and make a recommendation to the school board for the award of the bid shall sign the tabulation. Under no circumstances will a bid be awarded to any bid other than the lowest and best bid from a quality bidder.

In the case of the fire extinguishers the invitation to bid originally came out on August fifth two-thousand and eight and had a due date of August nineteenth two-thousand and eight. The bid delivery location was the Hillsborough County Public County Schools Procurement Department at nine hundred and one East Kennedy Boulevard on the third floor in Tampa, Florida. All told there were five vendors bidding to provide the fire extinguishers to the Hillsborough County Public Schools. They were, listed in no particular order, as follows: A to Z Fire, All Florida Fire Equipment Company, Fire Master, Piper Fire Protection, and lastly Tampa Bay Fire Equipment, Inc. All of the vendors provided information and pricing on all twenty-eight items that were requested in the bid along with contact names and numbers to ask any questions about their offers. At the end of the day the lowest and best bid came from All Florida Fire Equipment Company out of St. Petersburg Florida. The final act to make this entire process official was for the Superintendent of schools, MaryEllen Eila to bring this to the Hillsborough County School Board for approval. That very thing happened on Tuesday October twenty first of two-thousand and eight. As business action item number five point thirteen came up the recommendation to accept the lowest and best bid of All Florida Fire Equipment Company came across the table and was accepted. The recommendation read that the bid was prepared at the request of the Safety and Risk Management Office to establish fixed pricing for the purchase and installation of the fire extinguishers. It also briefly talked about the money involved in this sort of project by noting the financial impact and saying it was budgeted and that approximately fifteen thousand dollars will be available in the Safety and Risk Management Office budget for the purchase and installation of the fire extinguishers.

In closing the experience actually taught me that there is a lot that goes into the process of working for a local government. While a person is asked to make buying decisions, they are also charged with the responsibility to not spend too much because the money they are responsible for is so precious. So while you want to buy the best you possibly can at the same time you are trying to save money for the other items you know are going to be needed down the line. I also had the experience of working with one of the most helpful people I have ever been in contact with in the government sector. Jean Bowman was so free and easy to work with she made asking questions and requesting documentation a breeze. In fact I have so many public records I probably have several more than I need but each and every one of them were very helpful in putting together this piece. In all I learned it is not easy to be in charge of the people’s money and make everyone happy at the same time, but I also learned despite that difficult task you can also be nice doing it.

Midterm

1.) In order to tell a compelling story about the trials and tribulations on Mr. Al Zimmerman I would first try to find out as much background information on him as possible. I would start by trying to find out if he had any history of criminal activity in his past by running a background check through http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/CriminalHistory/. This step would help determine if this is a problem with someone who just made some bad choices later in life or if there is a larger problem at hand involving a lack of proper investigation into the individuals applying for government based jobs. After receiving any and all information on Mr. Zimmerman I would then make it a priority to talk to anyone that had a hand in hiring him without doing the proper background checks. It turns out he had charges filed against him in the past for writing bad checks and driving under the influence. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office website site http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/ was tremendously helpful in finding a ton of information on the exploits of all citizens including Zimmerman. In addition to the above steps I would try to find out his past, including where he was formerly employed and attempt to talk to some of the people that know him personally to see if they had any idea that he was capable of this type of behavior. I would look to have several questions answered and they are listed below: How did Zimmerman’s previous history of charges get overlooked in the interview process? What types of measures are going to be taken to insure that this kind of activity does not happen again in the future? Those two questions in particular I would be asking Mr. Bob Butterworth himself, chief of the Florida's Department of Children and Families. In addition to asking questions about Zimmerman I would also look to know what exactly goes into making sure an employee with the DCF is properly monitored and using funds for what they are supposed to be used for. This problem is larger than just an outlaw employee doing something illegal it is a black eye to the entire Florida government and should be viewed as such by Butterworth and all parties involved.

In addition to looking at this situation from a state government standpoint I also would look at it from a local citizen’s standpoint. While thinking along those lines I then used www.zillow.com to locate where this individual lives so that all the people that live in that surrounding area would know what kind of person lives among them. Throughout my search I found that there were many interviews done with people that claimed to have known Zimmerman very well and were shocked that he would be involved in these types of acts. So maybe the real story here is that you really never know people as well as you think you do. Along that line of thinking I would also try to do some research on his childhood and try to see if anything throughout his life would lead one to believe that he would commit this type of crime. To assist in this quest I would request a copy of the search warrant from the local police to see if anything they found would be helpful.

Lastly due to the fact this case is relating to sexual crimes we would not be able to obtain any information about the victims and that goes two fold because this case also includes minors. This would be yet another angle I would focus on and try to use this type of story to show both children and parents alike that in order to really know a person you have to take the time and do the research. This might sound like a very untrusting way to look at the world but anytime you are dealing with someone who is involved in shaping your life it is worth the time and effort to make sure you can trust them. My thought process in looking into all these different angles is to find an angle that has not been covered yet and I think by trying to pull all of these different public records and facts about Zimmerman it would give me a leg up in doing so. I found many different stories about this case but almost every single one of them was exactly the same and in some cases used the same quotes from the same people. If I were to do a story on something that is well documented I would want it to make an impact on the reader not just give them mind numbing stats that they can get anywhere.


2.) The Florida Sunshine Law is best known for allowing us, the Florida citizen, to obtain any records made or received by any public agency in the course of its official business. This is much different than much of the country as most state governments do not allow their citizens to have access to public records. Chapter one-hundred nineteen, the public records law, was passed in nineteen hundred and nine and allows for us to have the access to these public records. When it comes to the Sunshine Law there are a few things that are very important to remember. First anyone and everyone can get a public record, and secondly that person does not have to either give a name or a reason for the request. That being said there are many ways that state agencies sometimes try to get away with not giving someone the items they are requesting. From time to time they will ask for money to compensate them for their time, which is allowed but it must be the lowest paid employee’s salary that is paid. Other times they will say the item is not available or try to say they do not have access to it at the moment. That being said it can also go the other way and they can give you an unbelievable volume of records so large that no one could read all the information that is provided. This law also covers things like E-mails, faxes, computer documents and even discussions between public officials about government related business. We are tremendously lucky to live in a state that has this law, being a reporter is much easier in this state than the majority of the country.

Another key component to having an open government, in the state of Florida, is the commitment shown by Governor Charlie Crist. In June of two-thousand seven Crist issued executive order zero seven dash one-hundred and seven otherwise known as the Commission on Open Government Reform. The entire intent of the order was to ensure that all governments, both state and local, conform to Chapter one-hundred nineteen. It consists of nine members that will review, evaluate, and make recommendations in regards to Florida’s public records law. This committee would look at everything from whether fees should be charged or not in certain cases all that way to how records should be retained and distributed upon request. One of the major issues raised by the public was the publics right to obtain public records and how difficult some places make it to obtain these documents. This is one of the main reasons the governor enacted this plan, after hearing countless stories about how people attempted and failed to get the public records they needed and deserved, he felt he had to do something to make a change. Another major obstacle to obtaining public records is the cost associated with getting the records. During the third set of hearings several reporters stated that the cost is outrageous and more than that they are usually incompatible. The complaint stated that the different agencies rarely work together and never can help a citizen coordinate what they need when another department is involved. In fact by reading the various counts they were given it sounded like in most of the cases people were being intentionally difficult. Then the issue of cost comes up and in some cases the cost actually went up to hundred of thousands of dollars which is outrageous and just plain against the spirit of the law. The reporters claim that as technology increases it should be easier to obtain public records as less paper is used and it is stored much more easily than in the past. In their minds it is clear this all comes back to the government as a whole not feeling this is all that important and therefore not putting the proper time and effort into solving these issues. Another major and unacceptable issue also came up, and that was that some agencies are just flat out denying to provide the requested public record. In many of these cases they did not even give a reason but just would not provide it and other times stated it was due to proprietary information of the company that built the database. All this causes even a bigger problem than just having to pay for the information or wait a long time for it. More times than not these situation lead to a court case which ends up costing the requesting party loads of money not to mention could cause them to lose the timeliness of story. Yet another complaint that was provided was that many public records are only provided in a limited format. This also does not conform to the public records law as the public has the right to receive anything that is talked about when it comes to their local government. All this being said this entire discussion between the different media outlets and the Commission was not entirely about what is wrong but in some cases how what is wrong could be corrected. One person talked about how in other states when he was denied a public record he requested they are required to get permission from the attorney generals open records division. Another reporter, Matt Doig, Investigative Reporter, for the Herald-Tribune gave three simple requests that can help resolve some of the states issues with little effort or cost to the government. First they should just enforce the law that already exists by states just because an outside company is used to store information it does not mean it cannot be had. Secondly, the public should not have to pay for an outside company to pull the public records they are entitled to, they should be retrieved by someone making much less than a programmer for a private company. Lastly he stated that all databases should be built in a way they can be easily copied almost like coping a Word document from a computer to a CD. These suggestions and other just like it are the entire reason Governor Crist created this Commission. Through these sessions they are slowly but surely finding all the cracks and with each meeting also coming up with different ways to help resolve some of these problems. They are not going to be able to solve all of these issues overnight but they are on the right track and that is a step in the right direction.


3.) When State Senator Victor Crist announces his candidacy for Congress I would look into many aspects of his decision and his supports as well. While not trying to find dirt or anything of that nature my primary job would be to inform the voting public all I can about this new candidate. My first action would be to find where his money is coming from and I would do that through the website http://cqmoneyline.com/pml/home.do. The most important thing to remember when talking about or researching a politician is to follow the money. Money for an election can come from a variety of places and where they come from is sometimes just as important as how much. That being said after identifying who is providing this money I would of course look at the various relationships that he has and see if there is any unique things that jump off the page which could cause some concern. One example would be if a large group of people where providing money from the same company, in that case I would look at each one of their voting histories to see if this make sense or not. In order to find this information I would use the website http://www.opensecrets.org to see if anything is unusual or needs to be looked into a little deeper. For instance if of this large group of people only a handful of them have never voted before but now they were giving hundreds of dollars to a candidate that would be somewhat unusual. This would not necessarily be an issue for the candidate but it could certainly be an issue for the contributing party. Next I would go to the website http://election.dos.state.fl.us/index.shtml and make sure he is now a qualified candidate and all his papers are in order to run for Congress. After all these checks and balances have been completed I would get in contact with some of his major backers and try to find out why they believe in him so much and are willing to put so much of their hard earned money into his campaign. This will be helpful on two counts; on one hand if there is anything fishy going on it will help me determine what is happening. Secondly if everything is on the up and up I will truly get a better understanding as to why this person has such a loyal backing and will better be able to inform my readers as to the qualifications of the candidate. Our job as reporters again is not to find good things to report or bad things to report, it is to find everything to report and it is then up to us to decide what the public cannot get access to and give it to them. Another very interesting web site I found was http://www.followthemoney.org and it helps provide all the dollars by state and includes any kind of election you choose. This site also points out the different companies and how as they get bigger they start to contribute more and more. All told I would try to use all the resources at my disposal and try to make sure the public gets all the information they deserve about this individual.

Public Meeting #3

On Wednesday October 8th 2008 I was able to attend a public meeting in regards to traffic calming on West Minnehaha Street in Tampa. This meeting was held a Leto High School cafeteria and the contact person was Steve Valdez. Jim Hunt was the hearing master of this meeting and he was joined by Jim Hosler and Robert Wood the project engineer. The intent of this meeting was to slow the ever increasing traffic due to the growing concern over the safety of the neighborhood children.

In order to get a meeting of this nature the public first must have a petition signed by at least five people. Once the petition is received by the county they then will try to select a time and location convenient for the people who signed the petition at hand. At this meeting they are required to have a hearing master, an official recorder of the responses, and lastly a videographer of the event. In some cases such as this an engineer of the proposed project would also show up to help answer questions posed by the attending public. To help explain the options to the public they also provided a description of the types of speed humps they have available to choose from. On the sheet that they had prepared it described the public’s options as a parabolic speed hump that was 3 inches high or a flat table speed hump that would have measured 3-1/2 inches high but would be flat instead of rounded off. The parabolic speed hump would allow the traffic to travel through the neighborhood at speeds of 15 to 20 miles per hour whereas the flat top table hump would allow cars to travel between 20 and 25 miles per hour. In addition to those differences the parabolic speed hump would cause a delay of approximately 10 seconds per car and the flat top speed hump would only cause a 5 second delay per car.

All that being said this is meeting had the attendance of zero. Not one person who signed the petition showed up and neither did anyone else. In my humble opinion this was a much needed act to help slow down the traffic in this area. Not only did it seem like a good idea but according to Hunt it was pretty much a slam dunk to get approved because all of the other roads in the surrounding areas had the speed humps in place already. This was still a very interesting meeting to attend because I got to see exactly how they handle situations like these. First of all they had to wait the maximum amount time, which was 30 minutes, to see if anyone showed up for the meeting. Due to the fact that we sat there the entire allotted time and no one showed Hunt looked into the camera and stated what the meeting was about and that due to the lack of attendance this request would not be approved. One last point to note was that even though absolutely nothing was accomplished at this meeting everyone in attendance still got paid, with exception of me of course. My point here is if you don’t find that something is worth showing up for then don’t sign a petition because you could end wasting taxpayers money, just like all these people did.

Steve Andrews, WFLA Investigative Reporter

Today we had the unique opportunity to spend some time with Steve Andrews, WFLA investigative reporter, at The News Center, in downtown Tampa. During this visit Andrews took the time to show us some stories he had done and then explained how he used public records to help bring these stories together. In addition to watching these stories we also got a brief tour of The News Center itself. While we could not get a first hand look at the studios we did have the opportunity to see a variety of areas that are essential to get the news out to the public daily.

Andrews showed us several stories, but the one that hit home with me was the one about an elderly man who was not given the proper care at an adult living facility. This story showed that by using public records you can not only tell a compelling story but help fix a gross injustice but getting the word out. He used the fact that many people did inspections of this facility and not one time did they see what kind of abuse this one particular patient had to endure. In addition he also found that a doctor that did see the patient many times also neglected to report the living facility for their lack of care. Another story he shared was about a about a water retention facility that had cracks all over the place. The public records he was able to gather for this story were extremely helpful in that he not only got documents but video as well. This video helped show that the project was not built to the specifications needed for it to be successful and last. After everything was said and done, fixing this problem could have been paid for by the citizens of Hillsborough County but due to Andrew’s efforts the battle wages on as to who is going to pay for this mess.

In all, this visit was both insightful and exciting in that we got the chance to see all the interworkings of a news room and the guts that makes reporting hard work. Andrews showed all of us that while it is viewed as glamorous to be on television it is also a tremendous amount of work. Many times during our visit he talked about how he had to comb through materials to find what he was looking for. These painstaking efforts showed in the quality of his work and is something we should all try to emulate in our chosen profession.

Preston Trigg, Hillsborough County Tax Collector

Today we were joined by Preston Trigg of the Hillsborough County Tax Collector’s office. Trigg is the Director of Administration and Special Projects and took some time out of his busy schedule to go over some of the different requests he gets on a daily basis. He works closely with Doug Belden and helps with not only the various media requests but the tax paying public’s requests as well.

Some of the important facts he shared with us is that anyone can get a public record and they don’t have to give their name, a reason, or put the request in writing. While we have heard that from some of the other speakers we have had what we have not heard is that it might be a good idea to put our requests in writing. Trigg spoke from experience as he once was a reporter himself for the Tampa Tribune and used to make his requests in writing. The benefits of making your requests in writing is that it helps prove that you made a request in the first place and assists in mitigating errors in the request. When talking about accessing public records the subject of charges seems to come up a lot and he addressed that as well. He stated that the law allows extra charges for a large volume of records or a record requiring computer or programming time. After discussing the charges, we went over what types of documents we have the right to receive and the ones we don’t. Every document, email, tape recording and other government records start out as a public record that we have the right to inspect. That being said there are many exceptions, such as school records, (exam scores) items in that are in the process of an investigation, private emails, and most records involving juvenile records to name a few. Along with all of the knowledge he has gathered from his days in the tax collectors office he also shared some of the tricks he picked up as a reporter. He stated that main thing that all reporters should remember is to follow the money because that will usually lead you to a good story. The next bit of advice he picked up was from a former editor and that was to always check the facts because you never know who you can trust.

In closing this visit was one of the most helpful in getting me prepared to do a profile paper in the coming weeks. To this point we have had the pleasure to meet with many different people to prepare for our profile pieces but this one will set the wheels in motion. Both his experience and knowledge lead me to believe that if we follow the methods that he shared with us today we should all be successful.

William March, Tampa Tribune

Recently we were visited in class by William March, chief political reporter for the Tampa Tribune. Mainly he spoke about how we can use the various tricks we have learned thus far in class to get information if we were to eventually cover politics. It seemed like he gets a lot of his information from the various websites he spoke about. That being said the most intriguing topic he discussed was the various stories he wrote and how he went about gathering the information.

The story that caught my eye the most was about the political contributions to the Bill Clinton campaign. He found that a business had given their employees roughly one thousand dollars apiece and strongly suggested to them that they contribute to the Clinton campaign. This of course is not allowed because the donation was really coming from that business owner not the folks doing the contributing. What was most intriguing about this piece was how the information was gathered. He took us to a variety of websites that showed not only the contributions but who made them and the exact dollar amounts. Then he used those same websites to show these individuals contribution history or lack thereof. It turned out in this case many of these individuals not only had never given a contribution before but didn’t even vote for the candidate they contributed to. This of course not only raised some eyebrows but lead reporters like March to start asking questions. All of this leads to several major convictions and the shut down of the company Future Tech International. Some of the websites he showed us were CQ Moneyline, Autotrack, and Open Secerts.org. All of these have not only been used to help break this story but many other stories over the course of time.

In all what we can take away from this visit was that we have many resources at our disposal to help tell a compelling story. The several examples he gave us help demonstrate what we can use these sites for and prove our point. In addition to the websites he showed us, he also explained some political terms to us that I had never heard. He stated that hard money is money that is donated directly to a candidate where soft money is donated to a party instead of a particular candidate. All of these little tidbits are what makes a story real and interesting to the reader. That being said many of the points he helped uncover during his presentation should be helpful for us going forward.

Clerk of the Courts, Downtown Tampa

Today we got the experience of visiting the court of the clerks and in particular four members of the clerk’s office. Pat Frank is the clerk of the court but she is certainly not a one woman show. She is joined by a staff of over nine hundred to ensure the various duties of the clerk of the court get accomplished everyday. We spent some time with Pat, Dana Caranante, Director of Juvenile Court Operations, Douglas Bakke, and Director of Family Law Domestic Violence amongst other things. They spoke to what their areas do in helping the clerk of the courts operate on a daily basis.

Pat spoke at length about her role as both the Clerk of the Courts and Comptroller. As comptroller she is responsible for overseeing the funds that the county commissioners spend and dictates to them what they can spend. Currently she is handling a portfolio of about one point seven billion and that is on top of her duties as the clerk of the court. The three most important things to remember as a comptroller is, in order, return of principal, how liquid are the assets, and finally rate of return. Their duties as clerks of the court include keeping records of the court proceedings, collecting child support, issuing passports, and assisting with traffic tickets. I also found it very interesting that she said each year they give back to the county a ridiculous amount of money. In two-thousand and five they return eight million, in two-thousand and six it was nine point eight million and in two-thousand and seven with was still four point six million. That does not even take into account the sixteen million returned to the state for the clerks association. Overall she has many duties that have quite the effect on all of our everyday lives.

After speaking with Pat, three members of her staff spoke to us about their roles within the clerk of the court. We heard about the most requested documents from the court and the way the clerk of the courts handle these requests. Another unique thing they told us about was all the technology that has recently been added to make things easier. The main goal is to make life easier for the general public by making a lot of documents that are requested available online. In addition to making things available online they have setup kiosks to help the general public with some of their questions when visiting the courts.

In closing this was a unique experience and should prove to be valuable for all of us when doing our profiles. Not only did we get a better understanding of how the clerk of the court works but gained some perspective on what all goes into making a court system function. This was also valuable from a citizen’s point of view as a lot of this information could prove to be useful in the real world someday.

Public Meeting Assignment #2

On September 25th 2008 I was able to attend the Animal Services meeting held in downtown Tampa. During these gatherings they must have at least one member from the Humane Society and at least one member from the Veterinary Medical Society on hand. Connie Johnson was the Chairwomen of the event I attended and presided over the various discussions that were had. In attendance were several of the commissioner’s delegates including Joni Stokes, and Megan Hendricks along with Holly O’Brien, President of the Human Society. Dennis Mccullough, the active director of the Hillsborough County Animal Services, was also in attendance and provided a lot of the information that was discussed at this meeting.

Mccullough started things off by talking about a van that was recently purchased, at no cost to the tax payers, and was on it’s was to Philadelphia for a new paint job. This van, paid for by the The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, will be called 9 lives and will go around providing various animal services needs in the community. He also stated they have recently got some volunteers that are trying to find out why the vaccine vouchers are not being used throughout the community. Those volunteers will be speaking at the next Animal Services meeting to go over their findings and try to help correct this ever growing problem. Also announced was that on October 1st they are hosting a kid safe program at an elementary school in Wimauma aimed at teaching kids how to approach animals correctly as well as how to take care of animals. Also staring on October 1st the days to drop off either abandoned or stray pets will be narrowed down to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In addition to that, going forward all persons dropping off a pet will be asked to filled out a form stating weather it is a stray or not. This will help determine how many people are truly giving up their pets versus bringing in strays. Mccullough also let it be known that TruTv, formerly known as Real TV, is shooting an episode of Animal Court here in the Tampa Bay area. They did not let it be known when it will air but the dates and times will be posted online once provided. Lastly Mccullough stated that every kennel ran by animal services now has a bed. Over three hundred beds were bought and paid for by Bob Rainer and the animals are trilled with not having to lie on the floor anymore.

Holly O’Brien then presented Sherri Silk, Executive Director of the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, to talk about a free shot clinic for cats and dogs on January 10th 2009. This clinic will be at Sulphur Springs Park and will include free pet licenses, which are required in Hillsborough County. The announcement of this event lead to some lively debate about how they are going to verify that they are only offering these “free services” to people that really need help. This was not the idea of the city or the county it was the result of a study done by the University of Florida and they stated this is something that this area really needed. The argument of the veterinaries in attendance was that their clients do not access to this free service so why should others get this special treatment. The board ultimately stated to them that this was going too happened regardless of what they thought and that this would not hurt their business in any way as no money would be driven away by this event.

Once the proceedings ended I was able to interview several members of the board along with some attendees. Most notably I was able to speak with Joni Stokes who revealed to me that every time they try to do something good for the community the veterinarian society makes it difficult by interjecting how their actions would negatively impact their bottom line. She did not express any private concerns that this free shot clinic would be in danger of not happening because it is out of the veterinaries control. Sherry Silk also took the time to talk to me and expressed excitement about this upcoming event and revealed that she was a part of an event just like this in Detroit and it was a huge success. She provided me with her phone # (813) 774-4309 and told me to give her a call if I knew of anyone that could ever use her services at the Humane Society. All in all it was a unique experience and it is really refreshing to see that there are so many people willing to give their time, effort and money to such a worth cause. I really enjoyed my experience and look forward to my next opportunity to sit in on a public meeting.

Major Robert Lucas, Hillsborough County Jail

This afternoon we were given a tour of the Hillsborough County Jail by Major Robert Lucas, whose career has spanned over 30 years of law enforcement. During this tour we visited three main facets of the jail before seeing some behind the scenes operations. We first saw the booking room, the holding area and then finished off the tour with a trip to the lockdown facilities.

Upon entering the jail the first place you see is the booking room where anyone that is brought in has to wait to either be booked or wait to make bail. At this point in the process their behavior is paramount to how long their stay could ultimately be. If they act up or show any kind of aggression towards the officer working with them they will be put into a holding cell until they choose to cooperate. Some of the folks that are bought in make bail, those that do can remain in their normal street clothes until they pay bail and are released. For the rest of the individuals that are brought in and cannot make bail they must change into orange jump suits and get escorted to their holding cell. Two unique items we learned about in the booking area was the fact that the people that are brought in actually can make a unlimited amount of phones calls as long as they are cooperative with the staff. This is a strong departure from what is portrayed in the media and on the big screen. Secondly they now use a machine for the people that are actually taken to a cell called the BOSS or the Body Orifice Chair. This chair is used to help determine if someone has something in a cavity that is not found during a routine search.

The holding area that we visited next was nothing out of the ordinary from what was expected. The prisoners seemed to have a lot of freedom in the sense that they were just walking around, playing basketball, and cleaning various things throughout the facility. One thing that did jump out at me was that it was very quite, much quieter than I expected. Following the holding area we went to the lockdown facilities and again it was very quite but the key difference here was that every one of the prisoners was in their cell and none were just milling about.

Some little known facts were also presented throughout our visit like they no longer do the lunch line treatment and their budget this year will be $377,000. In fact 85% of that budget will go to the salaries of the employees working at the jail. All in all it was a very unique experience and one that I will not soon forget. Lastly in regards to media and the jail what surprised me was that at times the jail staff actually found out what was going on through the media, now that sounds like good journalism.

J.D. Callaway, Hillsborough Sheriff's Office

Today we had the pleasure of visiting the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office and Operations Center in Ybor City. J.D. Callaway, a graduate of the University of South Florida, joined us to go over the different type of requests they receive from the local media and how they deal with those requests. Callaway offered up many different examples of requests that have come to him over the years. In addition to talking about what his duties are in his current position he even went back to his Tampa Tribune days and told us about a case involving getting a individuals DNA off of a used ice cream spoon. This wide ranging presentation proved very useful in that we now know what the media is looking for and how they go about getting it.

One of the most interesting subjects he spoke about was how the electronic media has changed things. He mentioned that the media now actually listens to the police scanners trying to pick up on some code and use that information to break a story. The fact that the information could be completely erroneous does not seem to matter, that reporter simply has to change the story once the accurate information comes out. Contrary to popular belief the local sheriff’s office does all it can to assist the media with telling a good accurate story. The major difference here is the sheriff’s office main priority is getting the story right and media’s main priority is getting it first.

The local sheriff’s office provides a news release detailing who, what, when, where and why or how the incident happened. Once the news release is available they then provide an individual’s charge report, and follow that up with a (CRA) criminal report affidavit. Almost all the information a reporter will need about a case is provided in one of these three documents. Despite most of the information being in these reports usually all this information just prompts the reports covering the story to ask more questions which is exactly what Callaway is for. Another major tool reporter’s use and request often are copies of search warrants. These are used to help see what direction a case is going and can give a reporter an idea as to what will eventually be happening in a case.

To wrap up are visit we were given a sneak peek at the war room and the call center. In these two areas the staff gathers together and discussed what has or is going to happen. This session helps them prepare for the day and get a better idea as to what is going on around them. In the call center they have an elaborate display where they can see multiple things at the same time. This location is where the 911 calls are answered and the officers are sent from. Overall this was a good learning tool and gives us a better understanding as to what role the sheriff’s office plays in assisting the media.

Public meeting assignment #1

On September 9th 2008 I was able to attend my first Board of County Commissioners meeting, with the subject up for discussion being the budget for 2009. While I had seen these hearing on television before I never really had any idea what they were all about. I quickly learned that this is a very systematic process that has good structure and energy, which helps keeps the public well informed. With this structure in place they first introduce the topic at hand, and then they give the commissioners an opportunity to say their piece on each topic being discussed. Once the commissioners say their piece the attending public gets a chance to have their say. Each member of the public must signup prior to the meeting and introduces themselves once they arrive at the podium. Once at the podium they can take about as many topics as they would like in the allotted amount of time. After the public’s time has elapsed the various commissioners flag different items they would like to discuss at the next county commissioners meeting. Lastly to wrap things up the chairman announces the date, time, and place of the next public hearing.

One major subject arose during the stage of the hearing where Eric Johnson, Director of the Management and Budget Department, stated that due to some road projects coming back under budget the county is left with an excess somewhere in the one hundred million dollar range. With that news being given to the commissioners several of them especially Jim Norman and Al Higginbotham quickly stepped up and noted that is it the responsibility of the board to find a way to get this surplus of cash back to its constituents. Most everyone on the board agreed with the exception of Ken Hagan, Chairman of the Board, who stated that the county might better off using these extra funds to finish off other projects that have been on the table for several years. Rose Ferlita closed this discussion by stating that the people would let them know what to do once they had their opportunity to speak.

Next it was the publics turn to bring whatever subjects they had on their minds to the forefront. Lead by Tracy Thomas, a transplant from New Orleans, the public came out one after another in support of Ms. Bernadine King, former Human Resource Coordinator for Hillsborough County. King had recently been let go and many of the people she has helped over the years came to this meeting in support of her regaining her position. These pleas led to some lively debate between the commissioners as all but one of them saw this as an opportunity to retain a special employee within the community. That one was Mark Sharpe, Vice-Chairman of the Commissioners, who stated that by taking such an action the board would be setting a dangerous precedent. The public also addresses the issue of the surplus of cash due to the lower than expected cost of road projects. Overwhelmingly the public stated that they wanted their money back but at the same time they wanted to also be told exactly how they would be getting the money so they could keep tabs that they were actually getting the money back. Several of the constituents stated they wanted the money back and at the same time wanted the board to see that they stop any and all layoffs. This prompted Sharpe to react again by stating that money is either going to be given back or used to pay the salaries of the employees that are retained, both cannot be done.


I had the opportunity to speak one on one with two different people while at this hearing. First was Tracy Thomas of New Orleans, who was very helpful and forthright with why she was present at this hearing. Her entire family was displaced to Tampa as a result of Hurricane Katrina and it was because of the efforts of Ms. Bernadine King her life is now back in order. Both Thomas and her mother spoke on behalf of King and became emotional when speaking about what they had to go trough and all of the wonderful things King had done for them to get back on their feet. Today Thomas is going strong by owning a her own marketing form called T-Squared Marketing and she even told me she hosts Woman’s Symposiums on the side to help empower women. I also was able to grab a few moments with Mark Sharpe to ask him about his stance on King and why he thought giving her job back was a bad idea. In our conversation he stated it wasn’t about King rather about making this something people come to expect from the board. In fact he stated that he has gotten many E-mails to support her and has heard nothing but good things about her but restated that he does not want to open a can of words and start something the board might not be able to stop.

In closing this was a tremendous experience for me as I was both intrigued and entertained. I must say I had the impression that I would go into this meeting and they would be talking about items that had no relevance to me and I would be bored for two to three hours. Much to my surprise I was able to be mentally involved in the ongoing conversation and even thought about a few comments I would like to have made, if I was properly prepared. I now look forward to my next public and I can only hope it will be as good as my first.

Matt Doig, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Matt Doig, an investigative reporter of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, joined us today. Matt is an expert of not only finding information but knows exactly what to look for to help raise his stories to the next level. Through the use of systems such as Access and Excel he gave us several examples as to how we can not only write amazing stories but help change peoples lives. One of the examples that jumped out at me was the story he told about bus drivers and their criminal records, including many with drunk driving records. In this example he used the social securities numbers of these employees to cross-reference information using the Excel and Access databases mentioned above. Another example he provided was a story written by the Miami Herald-Tribune about mortgage brokers and how many of them are former criminals that were still being cleared to have a mortgage brokers license and write loans. In one case he cited a man who actually killed his wife and threw her in Tampa Bay, then served his time and was later writing loans to people. He noted this is a case where if you just find one person of this nature the government would say you are singling out just one unique situation but if proper research is done, as in this case, the government does not have a leg to stand on as their proved to be many cases of this nature. Since our class has many students that are Broadcast Majors he spent quite a bit of time talking about how this skill can be useful both as a print reporter or a television reporter. Some of the examples above he stated could have just as easily been television stories and the information gathering would have been just a crucial. This is a very important point to note due to the fact that in today’s current media climate it is important to not only be a good writer but a good story teller, that works for both print and electronic media. In all Matt’s presentation was more about what it takes to be the best of the best rather than some new techniques or tricks to get things done. He just laid it out there that if you want to be the best of the best you are going to have to work at it. It seems like with his background and passion for what he does he is a good source to listen to and could even be a good source down the road. His presentation was both informative and motivation as it clearly spells out the way to success and that really is something we all are looking for.

Guest Speaker Adria Gonzalez Harper

Adria Gonzalez Harper visited us today from the First Amendment Foundation to discuss public records in the state of Florida. The First Amendment Foundation is a not for profit organization that helps to oversee that the Sunshine Law, which is imposed in the State of Florida, is adhered to by all the various forms of government. The Sunshine Law is to ensure that the citizens of Florida have the opportunity to know what our government is doing and why they are doing it. Both the First Amendment Foundation and The Office of Open Government were established just for the purpose of overseeing that the citizens of Florida were able to do what the legally have the right to do. While Adria gave us a ton of quality information the main thing she established in my mind was that we have the right to request almost anything that is part of the public record. In addition to that she also left me thinking that it will not always be easy to obtain the documentation I am looking for. The key there is that I can only request documents and no information when I go to make my requests. In fact they also will not compile lists or reports for the requesting party; all they have to do is provide the public record and nothing more. I also found it very interesting that not only can a member of the public attend meeting but they also have the right to film it or tape record it as long as he or she is not creating a disturbance. That being said the most discouraging part of her presentation was the fact that a lot of agencies try to use the threat of charging a person for records as a way to get them to go away and not request the records they need. I find this practice to be both unethical and discouraging and you would really hope that with all the taxes people pay they would be treated more equally. Now she did mention sometimes people come in and request some outlandish things and because of cases like this every agency should have to have policies on file that tell exactly how much they are going to charge and what exactly they are going to charge for. In my humble opinion every time someone asks for public records from anywhere they should be handled a policy of exactly how this entire process is going to handled. To wrap up my thoughts I was very impressed with the wealth of information she had right at the tip of her tongue and she very rarely had to even think about the facts she was providing. To be an effective and informative speaker you must have two things; love for the topic at hand and a great deal of knowledge on the subject and she had both.