Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/166173
Sarasota News Leader September 6, 2013 Additionally, Pruitt pointed out, Ramirez had put in a new request for about 17 boxes of material to review; Pruitt had provided Ramirez with an estimate of the cost for that. THE VOTE Page 52 Patterson argued once more that Ramirez should have been notified ahead of time that she would be charged. "This is going to be a several-hundred-dollar bill," Patterson pointed out. However, she said, "I think [the revised policy] should be applied rigorously in the future." "If we're going to bill retroactively [for the day-long incident Barbetta cited]," Patterson "I'm very upset that we lost money that day," Robinson said. "We lost productivity that day. said, "that needs to be a commission vote." This is taxpayer money that we lost. Other Robinson said she believed the county policy people paid for this." already in place necessitated a payment from Ramirez for staff time, but Ramirez was not Nonetheless, she continued, while she undercharged. Therefore, Robinson pointed out, the stood Barbetta's and Hines' points, "I just can't support billing [Ramirez] because we screwed board should not bill Ramirez retroactively. up." Barbetta pointed out again that the relevant state statute allows a county to bill in situa- When Mason called for the vote, it failed 2-3, tions like the one involving Ramirez. He made with only Barbetta and Hines approving it. a motion to send Ramirez a bill retroactively. Afterward, Mason pointed out that she was "very unhappy" about having to cast a "No" Hines seconded it. vote. She told her colleagues, "I think we've Hines added that he would like the revised been taken advantage of, but going forward, I county policy to require a deposit for requests want us to rigorously enforce this. It's not fair that would appear to take a lot of staff time. to the staff or the taxpayers." % An Aug. 13 memo from County Attorney Stephen DeMarsh to the commission includes a section of the state law regarding charges for public records. Image courtesy Sarasota County