tomorrow noon at guana river hearing upon THE RULES SEE YOU THERE -- IVAN

[bikerlawyer]

I just spent about an hour reading through Section 119, is this the loophole you mean:

8) "Exemption" means a provision of general law which provides that a specified record or meeting, or portion thereof, is not subject to the access requirements of s. 119.07(1), s. 286.011, or s. 24, Art. I of the State Constitution.

There is also a provision that allows the person who gave up the "trade secrets" to get the information so it seems if we could get all the salvors who gave stuff to the state to ask individually for it's whereabouts they would have to gave it up.

 

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[ivan salis]

yepper dat be it -- "trade secerts" ie wreck site and such type info --of course both the original giver of the info and the state boys themselves can access it anytime since it is "their" info in the first place -- but no one else may . now if the state archies really don't want to show and tell think they will not try to play the exemption card?

or they pull the old jacksonville city approach -- when a local counter culture paper called FOLIO asked for fiscal records about who got what amounts of money for super bowl "revamping" and such --the city simple said ---"we have no such records" so now "prove" we do --ok millions spent and no records what so ever where it went? right --- but it took FOLIO 3 years and $9,000 in lawyer fees to make the city cough up the 45 filing boxes full of records that showed a lot of very very sweet dealings going on .

 

[FISHEYE]

Ivan,

I think your wrong about the loophole idea.2 years ago i requested from the state a chart of all the active and inactive wreck site locations on the east coast of florida.They sent it to me in detail,who owned the sites and current ones as well.And i didnt get charged for the copies or the mailing of it.

 

[ivan salis]

I'm just saying they can use it because its"on the books"" if they chose to do so -- not that they did in your case of course fish eye --- you were simply requesting known claimed sites and past worked sites that are well known to most folks -- I talking about "undeveloped sites" uncovered by survey that must be turned over to the state as per the "rules" while on contract--and other info the state might not wish to share (archive data)

 

[billinstuart]

In Florida, it is against the law for a government employee, state level or lower, to prevent access to this information. Freedom of information laws state a lawsuit for access to information goes to the TOP of the court docket. You can go through an employees desk, their computer, almost anything. There are SPECIFIC items that are excluded, though. You don't have to give your name, you don't have to give a reason to view anything. I've gone through personnel records myself.

 

[bikerlawyer]

But a good part of the public record statute is this:

119.12 Attorney's fees.--If a civil action is filed against an agency to enforce the provisions of this chapter and if the court determines that such agency unlawfully refused to permit a public record to be inspected or copied, the court shall assess and award, against the agency responsible, the reasonable costs of enforcement including reasonable attorneys' fees.

 

[Jimi D Pirate]

New rule has treasure seekers crying.
Sara Kaufman | October 24, 2008 |

Leave your dreams of finding wealth in buried treasure on the shore. The Florida Division of Historical Resources has proposed new regulations on commercial exploration of sunken ships and treasure hunters across the southeast are not happy.

"If the state proceeds with the new rule it will put us out of business," said Doug Pope, a 22-year veteran salvage hunter.

The new rule, an amendment to the Florida Administrative Code, creates permits for exploring and salvaging historic shipwrecks on state controlled submerged lands. The permits replace the current contract system. The final hearing on the rule was held Monday at Guana.

There, treasure hunters from across the southeast voiced disapproval of the rule, and the hearing process.

"I strongly protest the location of this hearing," said salvage captain John Brandon. Brandon said Guana is too far from the Florida Keys, where many salvage operations are headquartered.

Brandon also believes the new rule’s requirement that a qualified archeologist be present during excavation is a tremendous burden on private alvage hunters.

"The rules don’t seem to be based on the reality of working in the ocean," Brandon said.

Pope said having an archeologist on board will cost $300 to $600 a day. Under the old rules, he said, salvage hunters stopped excavating when they found something and contacted the state and an archeologist was brought out.

Ryan Wheeler, chief of the Bureau of Archeological Research, said the new rule was not designed to drive the private sector out of business.

"The last time these rules were looked at was in 1987," he said. "That’s a pretty long time. We were asked to review the rule to make it clearer what was going to be expected."

More than 20 people spoke at the hearing. Wheeler said considering all the comments the bureau has received about the new rule, there will likely be changes made.

"If we propose [more] changes, we anticipate having another hearing," Wheeler said.

Pope said this is the first time the industry has gotten together to fight for something like this.

"I would like to see the state continue to comply with the rules we’ve been working with all these years," he said. "They should live up to their agreement and include our community in it. If they enact this, I guarantee we will file a lawsuit against the state of Florida."