Sarasota News Leader

09/06/2013

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Sarasota News Leader September 6, 2013 OPINION Page 82 for her monitor. She spent the day inspecting woman Carolyn Mason — refused to side with records, scanning copies as needed, and then Barbetta in his pecuniary offensive, as his moleft. tion to retroactively bill Ramirez failed 2-3. Yet, to hear Barbetta's account, Ramirez was This entire episode is deeply troubling on sevguilty of some grand subterfuge, a scofflaw fla- eral levels. grantly fleecing county First, the allowance taxpayers. by the Legislature for The question should not be, "Why was the charging of fees He even refused to utter her name — refer- a person not charged for staff time?" The for access to public ring to her always as question should be, "Why are we, in the second records was a loop"that person" — as if decade of the 21st century, still generating so hole to frustrate the saying her name three many paper documents?" will of the people, just times in succession as the Legislature's alwould result in her lowance for faux canautomatically being didates to close what made a member of the commission. otherwise should be open primaries vitiates the constitutional amendment providing for Even after county staff members explained open primaries. that they had no consistent policy on charging for staff time, and it was their failure that ac- But even ignoring that fact, the right to charge counted for Ramirez not paying for her mon- citizens for public records does not automatitor, Barbetta continued to fume. He insisted ically equate to need or obligation to assess that Ramirez be billed retroactively for the those charges. monitor's time, despite the county attorney Barbetta's tirade was uttered in 2013, not pointing out that Ramirez had never been ad1963. In the last half century, technology with vised there could be a charge for such moniregard to the handling, storage and retrieval of toring. documents has exploded. The question should To their discredit, the rest of the commis- not be, "Why was a person not charged for sioners did not shut down this petty tirade. staff time?" The question should be, "Why are Instead, they generally agreed with the notion we, in the second decade of the 21st century, that individuals requesting access to public re- still generating so many paper documents?" cords, as guaranteed by the state constitution, If the County Commission wants to adopt could be taking advantage of the county and a meaningful policy, it should start with the costing taxpayers huge amounts of money. edict that no record generation will begin on But to their credit, three commissioners — paper. All documents created for county busiNora Patterson, Christine Robinson and Chair- ness should be recorded first in digital form,

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