JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Action News Jax has learned that, despite receiving 1,000+ pages of documents as part of our records request for the Council President’s response to a subpoena from the State Attorney’s Office, not everything is included.
Action News Jax waited weeks for the city to produce the records. Council President Kevin Carrico (R-District 4) provided the State Attorney’s Office after he was subpoenaed in February.
The investigation was launched after Action News Jax revealed Carrico had texted a JEA Board Member, telling them he would be replacing them with his boss at the Boys & Girls Club Paul Martinez.
In that text, Carrico indicated he was making the change as a “big favor” for a friend.
Even though Action News Jax requested all the documents Carrico sent to the State Attorney in response to the subpoena, not everything was turned over to the media.
Council Secretary Jason Teal told Action News Jax, “Personal communications were redacted since they are not public records”.
We asked Teal to cite the specific public records exemption for personal communications produced in response to a formal subpoena.
“If you have any law that says that documents provided to the SAO pursuant to a subpoena automatically convert private conversations into public records, I would be happy to review it,” said Teal. ”But I’m not aware of any.”
Bobby Block with the Florida First Amendment Foundation argued it’s not the job of the media to prove why something is a public record, rather it’s the job of the government to explain why something is not.
“They have to be able to cite exemptions. Without that, withholding them is illegal,” said Block.
Teal acknowledged back in April that Carrico himself helped identify and produce the documents for the public records request.
At the time, Teal argued that because Carrico independently produced the records in response to the subpoena, “he is the only person who can examine his records and compare them to the subject matters sought in the subpoena”.
“There’s a word that implies excrement from a male cow. That’s the word that I would use in this particular case,” said Block.
Block argued that while it’s not uncommon for public officials to be involved in the production of records related to their own communications, it’s not the way it should be done.
“What the records custodians and the attorneys should have done is say, give us your phone number, go to their service provider and say we want texts from this, and they would have been the ones responsible for screening out stuff that has nothing to do with it,” said Block.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
