Letter to City Commission St. Augustine, their apology and correction on open record settlement

[Dwight Hines]

Dwight E. Hines
150 Nesmith Ave.
St. Augustine, Florida 32084

March 18, 2007
Mr. Joe Boles, Mayor, and Commissioners Jones, Burke, Crichlow and Gardner,
City of St. Augustine
St. Augustine, Florida

Dear Mayor and Commissioners:

Please accept my congratulations for the public apology the
Commissioners and Mayor made for civil rights wrongs by the City.  I
believe the apology was sincere and, even though there were
differences of opinion on the wording, significant.  It takes a
measure of strength of make an apology.   There is no doubt in my mind
that the apology increases the respect the people have for their
government, and will make the tasks of the Commission and Mayor less
difficult because good will has been increased.

Second, I was delighted that my suit against the City was resolved by
mediation, as noted by City attorney Brown in his report to the
Commission on March 12, 2007.   I have just reviewed the video tape of
the meeting and it is important that the Commission know that I am in
agreement with Commissioner Jones that both sides were satisfied with
the resolution and that there will be no further judicial action on
those particular open records conflicts.

Now, I believe City Attorney Brown might have confused my mediation
with some other cases because he first referred to us as mediating in
Miami.  He corrected that later, but did not correct his other wrong
statements.

1) The resolution of the mediation was NOT a vindication for the City
and how they responded to Chapter 119, Fla. Stat. (2006) requests.  I
am bound by my promise of confidentiality not to discuss the mediation
content at all, but you can readily see that the City paid a
substantial amount of money to the First Amendment Foundation in
Tallahassee.   The City also paid for 75% of the mediation costs,
costs that would have not occurred if the City had agreed to free
mediation through the Offices of the Florida Attorney General.   I
would hope that in any future conflict on open records, the City would
agree to free mediation.   My case was the first case my attorney has
had since he passed the Bar exam in July.   His fees are very
reasonable but my concern is that tax dollars went to pay thousands of
dollars in outside fees and costs for a case that could have been
mediated for nothing.

2) City procedures for handling public records requests have changed.
Although not mentioned in the final mediation statement, the City now
has a written and detailed procedure for handling public records
requests, the City has a form to help keep track of public records
requests and, and this is ongoing, the City is in compliance with Rule
1B-26.003, F.A.C., that requires the City to have a list of their
software, etc.  I am delighted that these are now in place.

3) Although the mediation was resolved, with prejudice, the issues of
false statements filed in circuit court were not addressed and remain
open for prosecution or for complaints to the Florida Ethics
Commission.  Those issues were not part of the mediation and I don't
believe there are statutes of limitations on  Ethics complaints.  The
state attorney for the seventh circuit has not initiated prosecution
and likely will not prosecute, although that position could change if
a new state attorney is elected.

4)  Mrs. Upchurch has impressed me, as have the other staff, with her
helpfulness and cooperation.  I believe the City will be saving lots
of money and gaining tons of good will by having Ms. Upchurch as their
attorney.

5) My reasons for wanting public records were not without cause.   I
am just starting to analyze the data I've received from the City and
for the largest chunk I'm still trying to convert it into a form I can
use.  However, initial displays for the solid waste data for the City
of St. Augustine at Tilman Ridge Landfill only (obtained from County
government), are available at ManyEyes.   ManyEyes is a creation of
some IBM wonks who know that we all have lots of data and it is hard
to know what is happening in all of those numbers.  By using different
types of visual displays of the data, we can see what is happening at
different levels of an organization. What is helpful is to ask "What
would the ideal display look like" and compare that to the reality.
The discussions that follow are good ones because everyone is reading
from the same page.  I hope you will have time to go to ManyEyes
< http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/home> and see what all
they have going on.  I believe the City of St. Augustine data are the
only government performance data there.    On the left side of the
webpage, click on 'data sets'.  When you get to the data sets page,
you can surf down to St. Augustine, or do a search at the top of the
page and it will take you right to them.  If you surf down, you will
see how others are displaying their data and you will get tons of
ideas on how data like tourism data could be displayed so it'd be
helpful to government and businesses.

The displays for St. Augustine's data are at <
http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/browse/data?q=st.%20augustine>.
If you are not familiar with visualization methods, join the crowd.
Looking at more than the bottom line is a major change in management
practices.   Indeed, some people have found that simply letting people
who do the work see how their work compares to others, or just
themselves in different ways, yields substantive increases in
efficiencies.  Just looking at the few data arrangements for St.
Augustine on the web so far, and thinking about what they show, will
help you realize that solid waste systems have areas that need
improvement, in addition to the illegal dumping this past year.  It's
funny the way the displays work because you think that your questions
are going to show that you are stupid or illiterate when, as numerous
people have found out, those are the very best questions that are
asked.  Those are the questions that must be answered.

6) The resolution of my very specific complaints through mediation in
no way changes, alters, or influences the complaints of others in not
being able to obtain public records from the City, even after numerous
requests.   In any case that is brought against the City of St.
Augustine for public records violations, if the facts are similar to
what my facts were, I will likely join the case as an intervenor or
amicus.   Because there are still outstanding complaints that the City
has not acted upon and, even though the complaints have not gone to
court or mediation, it is my belief at this time that the City is in
still in violation of fundamental Human Rights as defined by the
European Human Rights Commission and the InterAmerican Court for Human
Rights on the Right To Know.

7)  As I obtain data from the City, I will be placing the results in
public arenas, such as the internet and, when appropriate, discussing
what I have found with other individuals and groups.    With the new
visual displays and, maybe most important  — increasing the number of
people knowing the facts so we can have quality discussions, we will
be following what Aristotle, Jefferson, Madison and the other great
thinkers said was the best way to make decisions.   It makes for
exciting times because some of the problems that look daunting now,
like traffic, can likely show great benefit by tiny tweaks in present
government actions, and the actions can be monitored to see what and
how large the effects are.

Once again, it gives a great deal of comfort to me and many others in
knowing that the mistakes of the past, and the present, were not the
intent of the present City Commission and that they apologized for
those mistakes.  It is a major step in the right direction.
Sincerely,
Dwight Hines


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