All entries tagged with “Sunshine Law”

Doug Logan, city homelessness director, submits resignation amid transparency concerns

Posted by Jacob Ogles on Friday Feb 12, 2016 7:04 pm

Amid controversy about the handling of a Housing First effort, the City of Sarasota’s top official tasked with finding solutions to homelessness has submitted his resignation. Doug Logan, director of Special Initiatives on Chronic Homelessness, will leave his post in the next two weeks. “Given the current set of circumstances, my ability to do what I felt needed to be done was compromised,” Logan told SRQ. “It was time for me to return to the private sector.”

City Manager Tom Barwin said the decision for Logan and the city to part company was mutual. Logan has come under intense scrutiny following the public release of a report marked “confidential” and other communications with administration that discussed the formation of a private organization that could rally funds and support for a housing effort. If an entity is determined to be created to serve in an advisory capacity on public policy, Florida’s Sunshine Law could force many communications into a public domain.

“We came to the conclusion that, based on some of the things that were happening, someone in the community was most likely going to insist that any private not-for-profit that emerged to take on Housing First and do some of the heavy lifting that needs to be done would be challenged as a public agency if there was a hand by any governmental employee involved with catalyzing such an effort,” Barwin said.

While Barwin said he did not want to identify any individual, the personnel decision and the release of Logan’s communications comes following a public records request by Michael Barfield, a paralegal for the Law Office of Andrea Flynn Mogenson. Following news of the resignation, Barfield said Logan’s departure would have no impact on whether a nonprofit formed based on city direction will ultimately have to operate in a public domain. “If Doug Logan left the city a week ago or two weeks ago, it doesn’t make an entity not subject to the Sunshine Law when the idea and purpose for the creation originated from none other than Tom Barwin and Doug Logan,” Barfield said.

Logan, though, said many nonprofits operate in cooperation with government without being bound by the Sunshine Law, “and with good reason.” “The county has a public facility in [Nathan] Benderson Park, and they have a Benderson Park foundation,” he said, referring to the Suncoast Aquatic Nature Center Associates. He said if such organizations had to deal with the same level of scrutiny and transparency as Florida government, it could complicate a number of matters, particularly private fundraising. And he said recent heated discussions of his communications with Barwin verify that. “Nobody wants to get involved in the circus of having to deal with these laws.”

Both Barwin and Logan suggested attempts to force a Housing First outside entity to operate within the Sunshine Law were intended to undercut such efforts entirely. “I’ve served in three states. I’ve helped to incorporate 501c3 private organizations because of a need to do it,” Barwin said. “Everywhere else, this is considered a good, healthy thing and smart collaboration.”

Barfield, though, said he has no problem with Housing First or the creation of a nonprofit. “What I do oppose is not having transparency for the solution, or any component of the solution, for addressing the homeless problem, which is the No. 1 problem facing the city. There is simply no excuse and reason why we shouldn’t be transparent,” he said.

Logan said he still had a passion for solving the homeless crisis. As he pursues solutions as a private sector person, he hopes nobody challenges his participation. Any organization created does not exist, and efforts discussed while Logan was a city employee won’t be the genesis of a group, he said. Anything created from this point on should not be bound by discussions that occurred before. But he acknowledged legal dispute over certain matters. “I may have to go back to teaching,” said the former adjunct professor and sports commissioner. “It may be, for some godforsaken reason, that I can’t invest in my energies and passion. But think of the motivation of people who want to keep me from doing that. Why is someone motivated to stop me from trying to stop homelessness?”

Barfield for now hopes city commissioners still question whether Barwin has been operating transparently enough within a government organization. “Why are city commissioners not asking Mr. Barwin the question of how this could happen yet again?,” he said.

City of Sarasota Reverses Course, Will Cover Chapman's Sunshine Defense

Posted by Jacob Ogles on Monday Jan 5, 2015 8:46 pm

Sarasota City Commissioners voted 3-1 tonight in favor of covering all of City Commissioner Susan Chapman's legal fees in defense of a lawsuit filed by Citizens for Sunshine. The commission previously voted to cap city coverage of fees, but two commissioners appointed in November took a different position than predecessors on the issue.

City Commissioner Stan Zimmerman, one of the newly appointed commissioners, raised the issue. "There is no stronger supporter of Florida's public records and government-in-the-sunshine laws than me," Zimmerman said. "But the only way to stop this is to defend [Chapman's] right to be a good public servant."

Chapman and Commissioner Suzanne Atwell in 2013 attended a merchant meeting about the handling of homeless issues downtown. Florida's Sunshine Law does not allow commissioners to discuss city issues outside of publicly advertised meetings, and Citizens For Sunshine filed suit against Atwell, Chapman and the city saying the meeting was not properly noticed and commissioners violated the law by attending. The city settled on the notice allegation and Atwell settled early without admitting any violation of law.

Atwell tonight provided the lone vote against covering all of Chapman's legal fees. "The merits of the case are not lost on me," she said. "But this is trying to slay the dragon. You can't slay the dragon on the backs of taxpayers."

The commission last year voted 3-1 to cap fees on Chapman's case, and the city has covered $85,000 amount used up in the first 10 months of the case. At the time, then-commissioners Paul Caragiulo and Shannon Snyder were opposed to covering more fees and Commissioner Willie Shaw was the only commissioner in favor of covering the fees. Chapman has not voted in any commission decisions on the fees for her own case.

But Snyder and Caragiulo are no longer on the commission; both resigned to run for a county commission seat, which Caragiulo won in November. Zimmerman and Commissioner Eileen Normile were appointed in November to replace Snyder and Caragiulo respectively. Chapman and Atwell were the votes in favor of appointing the new commissioners. Normile, Zimmerman and Shaw tonight vote in favor of covering all legal fees in the case.

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