Opinion: Has The PCB Mafia Turned into the Mouseketeers?

One of the things those in the state house love to brag about is Florida Sunshine Laws which require all text and emails sent, even on personal devices, to be publicly available via a FOIA type request. 

Now mind you of course, this does not apply to them only to county and city officials. So said the Gander to the Goose, but hey it makes for good public relations hype when you can go to the microphone and claim to be for transparency.

The law has greatly overstepped its bounds, especially if it was meant to align with the guidelines our founding fathers would have deemed reasonable.

Wait a minute, are you saying you're against catching corrupt politicians in the act? No, what I’m saying is that in the case of private devices, this amounts to a warrantless search with no probable cause, conducted by an anonymous person, or a “made man” in this case.

The Bible tells us in Proverbs 28:1: "The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion."

Said another way, the wicked will get a burner phone or never email or text and the righteous will say what they have to say in public. 

Recently, I had my communications with a council person from my private cellphone to their private cellphone requested. So much for freedom of the press. More importantly, I have the right to have private conversations with my elected representatives. The key words being my representative.  

I am guessing by now you are thinking well the topic must have been about some contract with the city that might benefit me or someone I knew. Nope it was about the TDC, TPO and Airport Boards. 

The irony here is that I made myself perfectly clear with regard to what I thought about three of the council members thwarting the will of the voters in a council meeting. Not to mention there were no texts or emails sent. 

And why was that?  Well, as I opined here, the made men and the new mayor had both nominated someone with no aviation experience. When there were several people who applied with decades of experience. 

We decided our readers had a compelling interest in knowing what this group was doing and what they accused me of. So, we made a not so anonymous records request.  Care to guess what we found? Queue Gomer Pyle: surprise, surprise, surprise, nothing. 

Now does that mean there is nothing to find or deals are cut where no one can see them taking place? 
I will let the reader draw his or her own conclusions. 

All I will say is when you make an “anonymous” request you look more like a Mouseketeer than a made man. 

www.RexLeeReid.com

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