Runs in the Family
Jun 21st, 2006 at 4:02 pm by Susie
When you have nothing to hide, you hide nothing:
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday vetoed a public records bill that was crafted in response to questions surrounding his office’s handling of public records.
In November, his office on four occasions denied the existence of a proposal to restructure a school voucher program. One of Bush’s deputy chiefs of staff later admitted to The Palm Beach Post that she had the 11-page plan.Rep. Shelley Vana, D-Lantana, responded to that situation by asking the Attorney General to investigate whether Bush’s office had violated the state’s public records law. Attorney General Charlie Crist turned down the request, but Vana later filed HB 1097 and got it passed through both chambers of the legislature — 38-0 in the Senate, 117-1 in the House.
It would have required agencies to “respond to requests to inspect or copy records promptly and in good faith.”
On Tuesday, Bush wrote in a letter that the law was too burdensome and may have forced some state employees to drop everything they were doing to respond immediately to public records requests.“I am not comfortable requiring Florida’s state and local agencies to set aside their primary missions to comply with a new, but undefined, time standard for responding to public records requests, notwithstanding any other statutory deadlines, emergencies, or public record requests that may compete for the time of the agency’s employees,” Bush wrote. “Likewise, I am not comfortable requiring state and local agencies to spend unnecessary time in court responding to allegations that, while their compliance with a public records request may have been ‘reasonable,’ it was not ‘prompt.’ ”
When told of Bush’s answer, Vana said, “Oh, please.”
They really have to learn how to get the wingnuts on their side:
“If the state official does not respond to a records request within seven working days, it’s OPEN SEASON on their lazy ass.”
The margins by which the bill passed the legislature appear to be veto-proof. Are there plans to override ol’ Jeb?