A judge wants Google and Yahoo to turnover information about who and when private email accounts were created for Gov. Rick Scott and his staff. (Photo via Sara Brockmann/FLGov.com)
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
There is more public records news here in the Sunshine State (see Monday’s post on the Brevard County Clerk of Courts lawsuit) . This week a judge ruled Google and Yahoo will have to turn over some information about private email accounts used by Gov. Rick Scott and his staff. The ruling is part of a lawsuit claiming Scott’s administration has been skirting the state’s broad public records laws.
The Associated Press’ Gary Fineout reports:
Chief Circuit Judge Charles Francis granted a request from a frequent critic of the Republican governor to subpoena records from Google and Yahoo. Tallahassee attorney Steven Andrews wants information on private email accounts that he says were used by the Scott administration to sidestep the state’s public records law.
Florida has some of the most robust public records laws in the country and normally state agencies must turn over emails on private accounts if they concern state business.
Francis granted what he called a “limited request” over the objections of the Scott administration. The subpoena would require the two tech companies to turn over information on when the accounts were established and by whom. It does not require that any actual emails be turned over.
Andrews said getting courts involved is the only way to get information about what the governor’s office is up to. Andrews has been locked in a legal battle with Scott over a land dispute. Recently, Andrews won a victory in that case, too.
However, because Andrews and Scott have been locked in a legal dispute for a while now, Scott’s people say this public records lawsuit is just an extension of that.
According to the AP, “Frank Collins, a spokesman for Scott, said that Andrews has a “personal grudge against state government and no shortage of time to file lawsuits.”
Andrews doesn’t see it that way.
The Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times reported:
Andrews argued that there is no way to verify whether the email accounts did not contain government business unless the court knows who created them and the owners of the accounts are put under oath. Andrews is [suing] Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi over whether they hid records related to a dispute between him and the governor’s office over property the governor wanted to buy to create a legacy park.
Andrews has produced evidence that Scott and his staff have used the Google and Yahoo accounts to conduct some government business but, when asked to produce the documents, the governor’s office replied that “no responsive records were located.” Florida law requires emails used for state business to be retained and not destroyed.
… Andrews produced a document that shows that Scott has used at least one account, gov.rls@gmail.com, to discuss public business outside of the sunshine. In 2013, Scott forwarded an email sent to him on the Gmail account from his former chief of staff, Steve MacNamara, to his public Sunburst account in which MacNamara urged the governor to consider Sen. John Thrasher as his lieutenant governor.
…Andrews also found evidence that members of the executive office staff have forwarded documents to eogfl@yahoo.com and he found that several members of the executive staff routinely used Gmail accounts to conduct state business. In addition to the former lieutenant governor, First Lady Ann Scott, and her former aide, Sarah Hansford, used Gmail accounts to communicate. O’Rourke and other members of the governor’s staff also were found to use Gmail accounts.
The AP reports Andrews also “pointed to text messages from one former aide that referenced an email from the governor yet the email has not been turned over.”
Scott’s use of private emails has been an issue since the beginning of his time in office.
Back in 2011, The Herald/Times Tallahassee bureau reported that experts claimed Scott’s team had violated public records laws.
According to the Herald/Times:
The e-mail accounts of Rick Scott and most of the governor-elect’s transition team were deleted soon after he took office, potentially erasing public records that state law requires be kept.
Scott’s team acknowledged for the first time this week that the private company providing e-mail service deleted the records as early as mid January, about the time the Times/Herald first sought transition e-mails.
Unable to gather records from the server, as is typical to comply with public records requests, Scott officials attempted to recover the governor-elect’s e-mails from personal accounts of his top-level staff.
But without access to the server, it’s impossible to know how many e-mails from Scott or his staff were lost between Election Day and the inauguration celebration, a two-month stretch when the team made key hiring moves and shaped the new administration’s agenda.
After months of backlash, the governor launched Sunburst, an online database of emails aimed at creating transparency.
However, because it was common knowledge that Scott’s administration used private email accounts, experts said Sunburst simply wasn’t enough.
And most recently, Scott’s attorney’s created a new policy making state employees the “custodians” of their private emails and text messages that deal with state work.
In practice, this change means journalists and members of the public will have to ask a state employee personally for records of state business conducted over private accounts. In the past, a state agency would hand over any public record on the subject requested, regardless of what type of email was used. Barbara Petersen of the First Amendment Foundation said at the time this change effectively cripples the state’s public records laws.
That’s why Petersen’s asking to intervene in this latest lawsuit, according to the Herald/Times.