Records obtained by The Miami Herald show the governor’s staff used private accounts for a secret mansion project. (Photo via Jimmy Emerson/ Creative Commons)
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Mary Ellen Klas of The Miami Herald has revealed another round of documents that shows how Gov. Rick Scott’s office routinely used private email accounts, thus skirting the state’s public records laws. This time there’s a paper trail showing Scott’s people took a project out of the public eye.
According to Klas, Scott, his wife and his staff, embarked on a plan to spruce up the governor’s mansion and the land surrounding it. The effort entailed buying up run-down commercial property nearby and replacing it with landscaping and a visitor commons. The area would become a more “spruced up” public space.
However, the project required funding. So, according to Klas, “deputies coordinated the effort with donations from the state’s top industries and persuaded Republican legislative leaders to dedicate $2.5 million in the state budget.”
The Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times reported this week,
But while records show that everyone involved was using state time to do the work, they wanted to avoid creating a public records trail, so they used private email accounts and private cell phones to keep what they were doing out of the public eye.
The practice was part of the culture in the new governor’s office. The governor’s first two chiefs of staff, Mike Prendergast and Steve MacNamara, instructed employees to use personal emails and personal cell phone text messages to communicate anything that was sensitive, creating a barrier to access when records requests were made, former employees have told the Herald/Times.
The details about the governor’s park emerged only after a judge ordered them released last year as part of a lawsuit by Tallahassee lawyer Steven R. Andrews. He successfully sued the governor and Cabinet for attempting to break a contract he had to purchase a building near the Mansion that houses his office.
Although Andrews’ property wasn’t initially included in the “governor’s park” project, it was later rolled together in Scott’s so-called “legacy project” that included updating the furnishings in the current mansion in addition to building the adjacent park.
Andrews sued the governor’s office for withholding documents and, in the process, found that everyone from the First Lady and her assistant to the mansion director and the governor’s deputies — Carrie O’Rourke, Chris Finkbeiner and Carly Hermanson — used private email accounts and cell phones to communicate about the mansion project.
Klas’ story details the many private emails and texts exchanged on state time, which discussed the fundraising effort.
Just last week, the Herald/Times published a story releasing the first round of documents Andrews obtained during his legal battle with Scott.
As mentioned before, 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 following the transition period right before Scott took office.
Since then Scott has launched initiatives like Sunburst– an online database of emails aimed at creating transparency—but, because it was common knowledge that Scott’s administration used private email accounts, experts said Sunburst simply wasn’t enough.