Getting Public Information: Just Be Patient and Keep Asking

From: Thomas Vaughan [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 1:59 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on Getting Public Information: Just Be Patient and Ke....

Thomas Vaughan has left a new comment on your post "Getting Public Information: Just Be Patient and Ke...":

I called and left a message for Mr. Valdez and he never returned my call and I work there. Guess he's too important to talk to teachers.

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You have to wonder what these Olympians do with their time on the job. Isn't one of their duties to answer the phone? Look how the Alafia mother reported that Otero's assistant said that Otero didn’t want to talk to her, that he had heard enough from mothers on Smith’s deficiencies. Here a group of mothers is frantic about their chiidren under an erratic principal, and Otero, who’s in charge of this specimen, doesn’t want to talk to worried mothers.

What are these guys doing with their time on the public dime? They are not cooking up a cure for AIDS or pondering the double helix. lee

Posted by Thomas Vaughan to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 10:58 AM

Linda, unless my mind has finally gone, I did send you the three names whose job descriptions I want. Please pull up “Smiley” in your email files and see if it is not there.

If you can’t find it, I will look for my email.

Every organization has a policy manual. For example, when I was a part-time nurse, any hospital I worked at had a policy manual on every nurse's station. The schools must have one, and I must be the first person who asked for it.

Is there any place in the Web school manual that tells people the protocol for public-affairs information? I got into fights with Tom Gonzalez on this issue. I thought he would send me stuff directly, but as I understood him, he said that if I addressed the request to him, he would send it to you.

It would not have killed Valdez as a courtesy to a citizen to respond to my email with the information that I address the request to you. What the administration lacks is a sense that the public deserves minimum courtesy. I do not get that impression from many administrators, and God knows Ms. Elia lacks a sense of courtesy to the ordinary public entirely in my view.

Under what title would I search the on-line policy manual for procedures in special-ed sections of the schools? It must be a whopper of a file. I suppose if I ever find the site, that the right title to look for would be "Special-ed procedures."

And what about my question of whether the third person from the top in the accounting list is Kipley’s husband?
lee

rom: Linda Cobbe [mailto:lcobbe@sdhc.us]
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 8:31 AM
To: lee de cesare
Subject: Re: follow-up request

I sent you an email Monday asking you to specify whose job descriptions you were requesting. Iwill see if there is a procedures manual for ESE. I'm pasting your request and my response here:

Lee, please just make your public records requests to me. That's my job, not his. Can you also provide me with the names of the "three supervisors involved in Steve Kemp's being suspended for alleged child abuse...?" I can't provide their job descriptions unless I know who they are. Also, I need you to identify what you mean by "the policy manual for the area that teacher Steve Kemp worked in before the administration suspended him..." What area is this? The entire policy manual is on the district website, so you can probably find what you're looking for there.

Linda E. Cobbe
External Communications Manager
Hillsborough County Public Schools
901 E. Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33602
813-272-4602 (O)
813-493-6964 (C)
813-272-4510 (F)

Our mission is to provide an education that enables each student to excel as a successful and responsible citizen.


"lee de cesare" writes:

Mr. Valdez:

I would like to have these public-information data:

The job descriptions of the three supervisors involved in Steve Kemp's being suspended for alleged child abuse of special-ed children;

The policy manual for the area that teacher Steve Kemp worked in before the administration suspended him on the trumped-up charge of child abuse; please have this manual sent to Linda Cobbe in the Public Affairs Office along with the job descriptions.

The answer to this question: There is a "Kipley" listed third from the top under the supervisor of accounting. The list documents the accounting team for Hillsborough schools. Is this the the husband of Linda Kipley of the Professional Standards Office with only a high school diploma who you assured the board was more qualified than the four candidates with an accounting degree who applied including a disabled woman accountant whom the Disabilities Act covered ? Did you make this decision by yourself, or was it an order from Ms. Elia?

You ignored my first two requests for public information. If you ignore this one, I shall inform the governor, the attorney general, the school commissioner, and the members of the Hillsborough County delegation that taxpayers are paying you a bloated salary to ignore the state public records law. Don't underestimate me, sir. I will keep on this project until I get those records, and I will attribute the evasion of the law to you.

Linda E. Cobbe
External Communications Manager
Hillsborough County Public Schools
901 E. Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33602
813-272-4602 (O)
813-493-6964 (C)
813-272-4510 (F)

Our mission is to provide an education that enables each student to excel as a successful and responsible citizen.


"lee de cesare" writes:

Linda, can you have a copy of the Special-ed department’s procedures manual for me to review on the date of the next board meeting? What is the status of the three job descriptions from that department that I asked for? ldd