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County to pay newspaper's legal fees in records case
By WILL VAN SANT
Published May 27, 2006
Pinellas County will pay the St. Petersburg Times for legal expenses it incurred while pursuing and winning a public records dispute. Pinellas Circuit Judge Mark Shames ruled in February that the county had violated Florida's public records law by refusing to disclose a settlement agreement approved with Rick Dodge, a former assistant county administrator fired in 2002. Dodge claimed he was terminated for making noise about a fraud-ridden welfare-to-work program. The county said he was let go because of job performance issues. The county appealed Shames' ruling, but an appeals court recently declined to hear the case. As is customary when a public agency loses an open records lawsuit, the county has agreed to pay the plaintiff's fees, in this case $19,806. In mid March, the county made the settlement public. Dodge received $155,000 in back pay. The county also agreed to put about $15,000 into the state's retirement system on Dodge's behalf, allowing him to recoup as much as $464,000 in retirement benefits in coming years. County Commission Chairman Ken Welch said Pinellas fought the Times' request because key parts of the settlement were being finalized when the Times asked it be made public. "That was my concern, and that continues to be my concern," Welch said. "But obviously the courts looked at that and had a different opinion, and I had to accept that." Times executive editor and vice president Neil Brown said the newspaper has a duty to pursue such cases in court. "The newspaper has a special role on behalf of the public to ensure that the government does not do its work in secret," he said. The county's payment, Brown said, would be used to pursue future public records cases.
[Last modified May 27, 2006, 06:57:29]
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