BEATRICE G. BROWNING, AS THE CITY CLERK OF THE CITY OF PLANTATION, APPELLANT,
v.
DENNIS J. WALTON, APPELLEE
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The Florida appellate court affirmed a writ of mandamus requiring a city clerk to disclose employee names and home addresses to a union organizer, rejecting the city's argument that employees' confidentiality requests created an exemption to the Public Records Act.
The court affirmed the writ of mandamus, holding that the city cannot create a self-imposed exemption to the Public Records Act based on employee confidentiality requests, and must disclose the requested employee information.
[1] A "self-imposed" exemption to the Public Records Act cannot be judicially engrafted by a court.
[2] The purpose of the Public Records Act is to allow citizens to discover the actions of their government.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“The purpose of this Statute was to open the records so the citizens could discover what their government was doing.”
Establishes the foundational purpose of Florida's Public Records Act that guides the court's interpretation.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceBeatrice Browning, the City Clerk of Plantation, refused to provide union organizer Dennis Walton with the names and home addresses of city employees,…
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FRANK N. KANEY, Associate Judge.
This case is factually similar to the Second District Court of Appeal’s case of Warden v. Bennett, 340 So. 2d 977 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976), and our own case of Clark v. Walton, 351 So. 2d 353 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977).
Appellant is the Clerk of the City of Plantation who has control of the city’s personnel files. Appellee is a union organizer who wants the names and home addresses of the city’s employees. He obtained a Writ of Mandamus when Appellant refused to provide him with them even though he had offered to pay any costs incurred.
The city had distributed to its employees a form requesting the city to maintain the confidentiality of all material in their personnel files. The addresses of all those who signed the form were not provided to Ap-pellee. Appellant cited Wisher v. News-Press Publishing Co., 310 So. 2d 345 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975), in which the Second District Court of Appeal said personnel records were confidential. That decision was reversed by our Supreme Court at 345 So. 2d 646. While not allowing the news media in that case an unrestricted fishing expedition into all the county personnel files, the Supreme Court did direct the county administrator to provide the information sought from the files.
The Appellant seeks to have this court judicially engraft the “self-imposed” exemption to the Public Records Act, Section 119.07(2), Florida Statutes (1975).
This we cannot do. The purpose of this Statute was to open the records so the citizens could discover what their government was doing. If we were to allow such exemption before long the imposition of that exemption might well become a condition of employment. This would plainly thwart the purpose of the Statute. A trash collector with knowledge of wrongdoing in the Trash Department is more likely to reveal what he knows to an investigator in the privacy of his own Florida room than he is under the watchful eye of his foreman at the Trash Department offices.
We have considered the other contentions of the Appellant and find them to be unpersuasive.
The Final Judgment is AFFIRMED.
DOWNEY and DAUKSCH, JJ., concur.
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City OF Riviera Beach & Larry Kersey v. Barfield, 642 So. 2d 1135 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994)…ation or actively using the information for criminal intelligence purposes. The general purpose of the Florida Public Records Act is to open public records so that Florida’s citizens can discover the actions of their government. Browning v. Walton, 351 So. 2d 380, 381 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977). Further, Section 119.01(1), Florida Statutes (1993), expressly provides that “it is the policy of this state that all state, county, and municipal records shall at all times be open for a personal inspection by any person.”…
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Byron v. State of Fla. ex rel. Robert W. Schellenberg & Robert L. Shevin, 360 So. 2d 83 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978)…easley, 317 So. 2d 750 (Fla.1975); State v. Ecker, 311 So. 2d 104 (Fla.1975), cert. denied sub nom. Bell v. Florida, 423 U.S. 1019, 96 S.Ct. 455, 46 L.Ed.2d 391 (1975). See also Robinson v. Reed, 566 F. 2d 911 (5th Cir. 1978). . Browning v. Walton, 351 So. 2d 380 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977), is not to the contrary. There the agency’s assurance of confidentiality did not induce its employees to give the information sought by the action; and the information sought was simply the names and addresses of employees. . Se…
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Nat'l Collegiate Athletic Ass'n v. The Associated Press, 18 So. 3d 1201 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009)…records. A public record cannot be transformed into a private record merely because an agent of the government has promised that it will be kept private. See Gadd v. News-Press Publ’g Co., 412 So. 2d 894, 896 (Fla. 2d DCA 1982); Browning v. Walton, 351 So. 2d 380, 381 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977). Nor is it material that the NCAA had an expectation that the documents would remain private. As we explained in Sepro Corp. v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, 839 So. 2d 781, 784 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003), “[A] pr…
Previewing 3 of 6 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- News-Press Publ'g Co. v. Lavon Wisher, 345 So. 2d 646 (Fla. 1977)
- Lavon Wisher v. News-Press Publ'g Co., 310 So. 2d 345 (Fla. 2d DCA 1975)
- Warden v. Bennett, 340 So. 2d 977 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976)
- Clark v. Walton, 351 So. 2d 353 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977)