Whose Information is it anyway - Part II

Village Attorney Eve Boutsis and Village Manager Ron Williams have devised a new and improved way to dissuade and undermined a resident's ability to get access to public information.    Before I touch on that subject, I would like to thank Councilman Tim Shaffer and Councilman Patrick Fiore for their time and effort in teaching and explaining to the Village Manager that if he read and understood the Village Charter and Florida Statues, he (the Village Manager) would realize there is no legal argument  for refusing me  public information I asked for over 30 days ago.   I must admit I am neither poor nor rich, as Goldilocks would say, I'm just about right.  So when I was given an invoice by the Village Clerk for $700.00, for the information I requested, I was a little in shock.  It's not that I can't afford the $700.00 but the Florida Statues state:   (4) The custodian of public records shall furnish a copy or a certified copy of the record upon payment of the fee prescribed by law. If a fee is not prescribed by law, the following fees are authorized: (a)1. Up to 15 cents per one-sided copy for duplicated copies of not more than 14 inches by 81/2 inches; 2. No more than an additional 5 cents for each two-sided copy; and 3. For all other copies, the actual cost of duplication of the public record. (b) The charge for copies of county maps or aerial photographs supplied by county constitutional officers may also include a reasonable charge for the labor and overhead associated with their duplication. (c) An agency may charge up to $1 per copy for a certified copy of a public record. (d) If the nature or volume of public records requested to be inspected or copied pursuant to this subsection is such as to require extensive use of information technology resources or extensive clerical or supervisory assistance by personnel of the agency involved, or both, the agency may charge, in addition to the actual cost of duplication, a special service charge, which shall be reasonable and shall be based on the cost incurred for such extensive use of information technology resources or the labor cost of the personnel providing the service that is actually incurred by the agency or attributable to the agency for the clerical and supervisory assistance required, or both.   If an average citizen had any inclination to ask for the same information  -  which, by the way, should have been readily available since it is basic financial information that consists of some bank reconciliations and 10 days of the Village Managers emails - they would be deterred by the financial obstruction put in place by the Village Manager.    And why should it be so hard and expensive to share this information in this day and age.  Google gives me a world of email, maps, books, and all sorts of information for free, but the Village charges me $700 for 10 days of emails and some bank statements which should be readily available to the public with the push of a button.    The only explanation is that the Village Manager's tactic is to charge a lot of money for public records so that I might go away.    Nice try Mr. Manager.   In case you were wondering, included in the $700 they billed me was time spent by the Village Attorney to review emails, time spent by the Village Director, time spent by the Clerk's assistant, time for the Village Manager's assistant and so on.   The invoice is not exactly legal according to the Florida Statues, but then again why should the rule of law be taken into consideration by the Village Manager now when it's never guided him in the past?  A very large portion of  the bill is for services by the same Village Attorney that was admonished by the Council in the last meeting for questionable billing practices, including over-billing.   And to top it all off, after months of the Village Manager's delay, obstruction, diversion and mis-direction to keep the public information I requested out of our hands, I still won't have everything I asked for in exchange for my $700 payment.   If you think about it, I've actually paid for this information twice now - once with my tax dollars and now with my Visa.   For a Village and a Mayor who profess to have run on the platform of "Transparency in Government",  we are experiencing nothing but the opposite at a jacked-up price. David Singer