The Lehigh Acres Gazette received exclusive information that Fire Commissioners Cathy Kruse and Larry Becker are allegedly under investigation for talking back and forth by email before the July 26, 2016 fire board meeting about the number people coming to the meeting and what item those people were going to be talking about.
According to the complaint Becker started the conversation and Chairperson Kruse answered him twice and then Becker thanked her for the information by email.
When the Lehigh Acres Gazette called the Florida Ethics Commission, The Commission would not comment about any ongoing investigations.
Lehigh Acres Gazette tried to reach out to Kruse and Becker for a comment, but no one returned our requests.
You may want to read the Florida Sunshine Law. Public records is only part of the law.
so your saying a public official can’t correspond with another about known upcoming events at a public meeting in order to be able to respond to residents with some sort of research and reliability of their concerns?
http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/RMAS-9UPM53/$file/2015SunshineLawManual.pdf
C. DOES THE SUNSHINE LAW APPLY TO TELEPHONE, ELECTRONIC, OR
WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN BOARD MEMBERS?
1. Application of the Sunshine Law to telephone conversations, written correspondence,
and electronic communications media
a. Telephone conversations
Private telephone conversations between board members to discuss matters which
foreseeably will come before that board for action violate the Sunshine Law. See State v. Childers,
No. 02-21939-MMC; 02-21940-MMB (Escambia Co. Ct. June 5, 2003), per curiam affirmed,
886 So. 2d 229 (Fla. 1st DCA 2004) (private telephone conversation during which two county
commissioners and the supervisor of elections discussed redistricting violated the Sunshine Law).
b. Written correspondence, e-mails, texts, and other electronic communications
The Sunshine Law requires boards to meet in public; boards may not take action on or
engage in private discussions of board business via written correspondence, e-mails, text messages
or other electronic communications. See AGO 89-39 (members of a public board may not use
computers to conduct private discussions among themselves about board business).