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A memo blocking access to public records on the project is quickly rescinded, but not before it stirs suspicion among foes of the development.
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 13, 2002
INVERNESS -- Winston Perry walked into county offices Monday morning and requested a copy of the videotape of the County Commission's hearing on the Halls River Retreat.
That afternoon, fellow project opponent Ron Miller asked to see the county planners' reports on the 54-unit time share project that the commission approved 3-2 last month.
County staffers told both men the same thing: Sorry, but under a new directive from the county attorney, we cannot release any documents or tell you any information about Halls River Retreat.
Then, as quickly as the first directive appeared Monday, a second memorandum went out Tuesday morning rescinding the lock-down on Halls River Retreat records.
Members of the public can once again view the county records on the project.
"Obviously, I overstated my position on that," County Attorney Robert Battista told the Times on Tuesday.
Under the state's public records law, county government documents are presumed to be open to the public unless covered by a specific exemption. One provision exempts certain records if the topic is under litigation.
When he issued the first memo Monday, Battista thought that exemption would apply to all Halls River Retreat documents, as two attorneys planned this week to file legal challenges to the commission's approval of the project.
Because he was not in his Inverness office at the time, Battista said, he dictated the memo to his secretary without having the exemption language in front of him.
The memo did not cite the specific exemption being claimed, contrary to what the public records law requires, said Denise Lyn, attorney for the Save the Homosassa River Alliance.
"The public records laws are very specific," Lyn said. "They have to identify which document they're withholding and why."
At any rate, the exemption Battista had in mind only applies to documents about legal strategies or theories that have been prepared "exclusively" for a pending or impending lawsuit.
When Battista came into his Inverness office Tuesday and looked up the exemption, he realized the first memo was in error.
He sent out a second memo saying the Halls River Retreat documents can be released to the public after all. The County Attorney's Office should be notified when requests are made and which records are provided, the memo says; unlike the first directive, however, the second memo does not require staff to tell Battista who requested records.
The incident has bred further suspicion among the condominium project's critics.
"His first reaction was to seal off all the public records," said Miller, president of the Save the Homosassa River Alliance and the local Audubon Society. "There must be something there we haven't seen."
And there is one other lasting effect: Both memos advise county staffers not to discuss their "knowledge or views" about the project with anyone outside the County Attorney's Office.
"It doesn't say they can't," Battista said. "I'm just requesting that they not."
"My job is to defend (the commission's approval of the condo project)," he added. "I'm just trying to do that."
The advice does not extend to members of the County Commission, however.
"They know the lawsuits are coming, they read the paper," Battista said. "I would trust their own intuitions as to the comments they may make. I just rely upon them to use their discretion as they wish."
Lyn questions the legal basis for advising county staff not to discuss the project, and her clients say it will hinder their efforts.
"If we don't have access to the staff personnel to ask these questions to, that hampers us a great deal," said Perry, a member of the Save the Homosassa River Alliance. "How can we stay on top of the process if we can't talk to people and ask questions of a public venue?"
-- Bridget Hall Grumet can be reached at 860-7303 or bhall@sptimes.com.