Cover-up to Cover One's Ass

Commissioner Eric J. Smith

Turington Building 154

325 James Street

Tallahassee, FL 32299

3/18/2009

Dear Commissioner Smith:

Several weeks ago I requested that you get Broward County School Board to obey the public-information law and forward me requested public information about its hiring as lobbyist Dr. James Hamilton, former assistant superintendent Hillsborough County.

Marion County’s school-board attorney has informed me that I was mistaken in my information that Dr. Hamilton was its lobbyist in response to my public-information query; however, Marion County’s name appears on Dr. Hamilton Web site as a client.

I consider Dr. Hamilton a poor choice on academic and ethical grounds to represent school systems. That Broward did not exercise equal opportunity but made a buddy hire also concerns me.

Dr. Hamilton rose in the Hillsborough administration hierarchy by assisting Dr. Earl Lennard, then superintendent, to hound one Mr. Erwin out of the school system, deprived of his pension because Mr. Erwin discovered ongoing theft, bid-rigging, and graft in the administration’s conduct of the schools and asked Dr. Lennard and his lieutenants to stop it. Mr. Erwin also appealed to the board. Both did nothing to clean up the crime but gave Mr. Erwin the runaround and tried to convince him and others that he was crazy in order to continue the scams.

After two years of being ignored, harassed, and reputed crazy, Mr. Erwin filed and won a Whistleblower lawsuit against the board with a $165,000 settlement paid by taxpayers for administration and board criminality. None of the school participants received punishment. Some of the worst offenders in the covcr-up like Dr. Hamilton rather gained status.

While at Hillsborough, Dr. Hamilton did not let ethics or professionalism deter him from getting what he wanted. He had his protégée Ms. Connie Mileto get the job of government representative in Tallahassee instead of more qualified candidates-. She was a kindergarten teacher. Ms. Mileto remains in that position today. Rumor says that Dr. Hamilton has returned to the domestic hearth to scheme to extract more taxpayer money by becoming lobbyist to multiple school boards that do not advertise the job but hire him in the old’ boy network of school administrators who degrade Florida’s public education.

Dr. Hamilton has an absolute gift for milking money from taxpayers. And he has no shame.

For example, current superintendent Elia created Dr. Hamilton a $140,000 administrative job on his retirement last year. She put his name on the faux job before it appeared in the employment records. Dr. Hamilton apparently used tax-paid time under the aegis of this created job to cold-call state school boards to get himself a list of clients. When Dr. Hamilton had filled his client list of six school boards and the state association of school administrators in a little over after half a year, he left Hillsborough to lobby. Ms. Elia erased his boutique job from the books. Cost to the taxpayers for the featherbedding: $70,000 to $80,000. The board’s reaction? Its members ignored the scam. The board routinely pretends it does not know when such outrages on the taxpayers take place.

Ms. Elia signed Dr. Hamilton up as the board’s state lobbyist without advertising the job as he exited.

The board cooperated with the Hamilton featherbedding job raid and other raids on the public purse and assaults on equal-employment-opportunity. Its members pretend not to be aware of compromising situations, the default board stance of deniability. Its members swear by the truth of their logo of “We are an equal-employment opportunity employer” and gad about the Bay Area to public dinners, luncheons, and other powwows pretending they are the saviors of education.

Since I taught college English for twenty-eight years, I noted Dr. Hamilton's relative illiteracy despite his Ph.D. from the University of Florida. His email revealed that he did not know the difference between "your" and "you're"; a report he wrote advising new board members how to conduct themselves showed minimal knowledge of grammar and punctuation, frail grasp of organization and development, and complete lack of rhetorical felicity.

Retirement does not stop the Hamilton parasitism on taxpayers. He today has a lobbying portfolio of six Florida school districts and Florida Association of School Administrators that pay him big tax dollars. His is a case of double-dipping with a vengeance.

I asked your help several weeks ago in getting Broward County's school board, one of Dr. Hamilton's clients, to yield me public information about his hiring: I requested Broward’s board secretary’s notes on discussion of the job; employment ad, where the board published it, and applications of the defeated candidates. I got no response from two requests for these data to the Broward board.

After the second unanswered request for public information from Broward, I asked your help in getting a school board which you supervise to obey the public-information law.

You have not responded either, sir.

I ask again for your response to my request. I will expect your help with any obdurate boards among Dr. Hamilton’s other schools’ clients as well. His Web site lists Florida Association of School Administrators; Marion County Public Schools; School Board of Brevard County ; School Board of Manatee County; School Board of Sarasota County; School District of Hillsborough County ; School District of Osceola County ; School Board of Lake County, The St. Johns County School District as clients. The attorney for Marion writes me that Dr. Hamilton is not a lobbyist for Marion County school board, but the citation remains on Dr. Hamilton’s lobbying Web site.

If you do not have authority in this matter, pray direct me to the person in state government who does.

Lee Drury De Cesare

15316 Gulf Boulevard 802

Madeira Beach, FL 22708

tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com

leedrurydecesarescasting-roomcouch.blogspot.com

c:

Governor Crist

Attorney General McCollum

Mr. Pablo Diaz

Ms. JoAnn Carin

Lt. Governor Jeff Kott Camp

Dr. Machen

Ms. Beverly Morris

Be vigilant on openness

Published Friday, March 13, 2009

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Gov. Charlie Crist deserves high marks for renewing Florida's commitment to government in the sunshine. Just in the past year, his open government office has trained 2,000 state employees on responding to public information requests. And his open government commission has recommended ways to refresh Florida's commitment in the digital age. But assuring sunshine in government requires constant vigilance, particularly during a legislative session.

That is why the news media in Florida and across the country have established Sunshine Week from March 15-21, organized by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Florida law requires public notice of any meetings where decisions are made by elected officials, and government records are presumed open to the public unless there is a specific exemption in state law. But even in Florida, where voters enshrined government in the sunshine in the state Constitution in 1992, there are new assaults annually on open government.

Among the bad ideas circulating in the Legislature this year:

• Bar public education institutions from releasing identifying information of current and former employees. The measure offered by Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, SB 1260, and Rep. Mia Jones, D-Jacksonville, HB 409, would prevent public schools and colleges from providing the names, addresses, phone numbers and employment status of teachers, administrators and school board members. The exemption would make it extremely difficult for parents to investigate their children's public schools. And the proposed law would have hindered a recent series by the St. Petersburg Times about government employees who earn both a paycheck and a state pension — so-called double-dippers. The legislation would have made it impossible to see how many educators were double-dipping.

• Hide the names, addresses and phone numbers of stalking victims in voter registration records. State law already allows stalking victims to have their addresses exempted from all public records. But it is not okay to have anonymous voters on the rolls as SB 2144, sponsored by Sen. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, would allow. You can't protect the integrity of an election process when some of the voters are named John and Jane Doe.

• Prohibit disclosure without a court order — except to a victim's family — of any crime scene photos and videos that include a severe injury or deceased person. The measure, HB 277 and SB 636, sponsored by Rep. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, and Sen. Charlie Dean, R-Inverness, would make it harder to examine the integrity of police investigations and unearth mistakes or cover-ups.

But for all the possible assaults on open government this session, there is also a chance to improve it. Lawmakers should approve the following:

• "The Florida Budget Openness Act" would give Floridians online access to state and local government expenditures and revenues. It follows one of the key recommendations of the open government commission, which would give citizens electronic access to see how their government spends tax dollars. The proposal, HB 971 and SB 1972, sponsored by Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, and Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Brandon, would direct that a Web site be created to track the fiscal details of every government entity in the state including local governments, the courts, the Legislature, school districts, state colleges, etc. Interested in how much a city's parks department is paying in salaries? Call up the Web site. Want to know how much bond debt your county is carrying? It would be there. The Web site would give taxpayers the power to understand just how their money is being spent. It would be a tremendous boon to civic activism and engagement.

• Allow foster parents and people considering adoption access to certain parts of a child's case files. The Department of Children and Families is supporting SB 126, sponsored by Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, which would make it easier for the adults caring for a child who has been removed from a home due to abuse or neglect to have access to that child's history. The child would also have access to their own file at no cost. Right now it takes a court order — an expensive and cumbersome process — to open these records.

There are a host of other good ideas available for elected officials to embrace in the report by the open government commission. State lawmakers and local government leaders interested in proving their commitment to the public should take them up, such as a proposal to bar public officials from using electronic communications devices during public meetings.

To his credit, Crist has made open government a priority for his administration. So should Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Larry Cretul. They should persuade lawmakers to reject dangerous new exemptions to public records law and promote those measures that would lead to more citizen access. Each elected official bears the constitutional responsibility to keep Florida in the sunshine.