NEWS AND SUN-SENTINEL COMPANY AND JOSEPH C. NUNES, APPELLANTS,
v.
SCHWAB, TWITTY & HANSER ARCHITECTURAL GROUP, INC., A FLORIDA CORPORATION, AND PAUL M. TWITTY, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS AN OFFICER AND DIRECTOR OF SCHWAB, TWITTY & HANSER ARCHITECTURAL GROUP, INC., APPELLEES
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The court affirmed that an architectural firm hired by a school district to perform professional services is not an agency acting on behalf of a public agency under Florida's public records law, but certified a question of great public importance regarding the statutory definition of agency.
An architectural firm hired by a county school district to perform professional architectural services for school construction does not qualify as an agency acting on behalf of a public agency under Florida Statutes section 119.011(2).
[1] A professional architectural firm hired by a public agency to perform construction services does not act on behalf of the agency merely by virtue of the contractual relat…
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PER CURIAM.
We affirm on the authority of Parsons & Whittemore, Inc. v. Metropolitan Dade County, 429 So. 2d 843 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983). We note that a firm of consultants hired to recommend persons for the position of managing director of a public authority has been held to be a business entity ‘acting on behalf of’ a public agency. Byron, Harless, Schaffer, Reid & Associates v. State ex rel. Schellenberg, 360 So. 2d 83 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978), rev’d on other grounds, 379 So. 2d 633 (Fla.1980). We agree with our sister court, the consultants participated in the agency’s process to decide who should be hired. But, sub judice, the architects did not participate in the school district’s process to decide whether schools should be built. We hold that the architectural firm was not an agency “acting on behalf of” a public agency.
However, the wording of section 119.-011(2) of the Florida Statutes (1989) troubles us:
“Agency” means any state, county, district, authority of municipal officer, department, division, board, bureau, commission, or other separate unit of government created by law and any other public or private agency, person, partnership, corporation, or business entity acting on behalf of any public agency.
(Emphasis added). Therefore, we certify the following question to be of great public importance:
Does a corporation act on behalf of a public agency when hired by a county to perform professional architectural services for the construction of a school so as to be subject to the provisions of Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes?
AFFIRMED.
POLEN and GARRETT, JJ., concur. LETTS, J., dissents in part with opinion.
LETTS, Judge,
dissenting in part.
I concur in the affirmance, but would not certify the question.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
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News & Sun-Sentinel Co. v. Schwab, 596 So. 2d 1029 (Fla. 1992)…KOGAN, Justice. We have for review News & Sun-Sentinel Co. v. Schwab, Twitty & Hanser Architectural Group, 570 So. 2d 1095 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990), in which the following question was certified as being of great public importance:1 Does a corporation act on behalf of a public agency when hired by a county to perform professional architectural services for the construction…
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The NEW York Times Co. v. PHH Mental Health Servs., Inc., 616 So. 2d 27 (Fla. 1993)…cy within the meaning of chapter 119 and need not produce the records. On appeal, the district court affirmed the trial court’s ruling, but certified the question to this Court. News & Sun-Sentinel Co. v. Schwab, Twitty & Hanser Architectural Group, 570 So. 2d 1095, 1096 (Fla. 4th DCA 1990) approved, 596 So. 2d 1029 (Fla.1992). In this Court’s review of Schwab, we noted that chapter 119 broadly defines the term “agency” to include private entities acting on behalf of any public agency. 596 So. 2d at 1031. How…
Authorities Cited
- Shevin v. Byron, 379 So. 2d 633 (Fla. 1980)
- Byron v. State of Fla. ex rel. Robert W. Schellenberg & Robert L. Shevin, 360 So. 2d 83 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978)