Last week in Part III of what has now become a continuing series of stories about the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, I posted copies of 4 public record requests that I submitted to the Trust.

Throughout the week I received responses, that in several instances led to additional requests, and on Sunday I submitted another 2 requests based in part on information that I had been provided as part of my original 4 requests, as well as a followup to my request for an up-to-date list of the Homeless Trust Board.

This is not an uncommon process as I try to gather information for the stories I write about the activities of governmental agencies.

In fact, over the years I've written numerous stories detailing my efforts in trying to obtain public records from public officials and governmental agencies, and the detailed process it often requires in dealing with the reluctance or outright refusal of some public officials and agencies who haven't wanted to comply with my requests.

The irony is that along with documents that support my allegations, I also get documents that refute them. The important thing though, is that I get the documents, because they are what will tell me if I'm on to something, or wasting my time.

One reason why I suspected that I might be in for my usual struggles and rope-a-dope with the Trust was that their website, unlike the websites of many other governmental agencies, fails to provide the kind of information you would expect from an agency interested in engaging in best practices when it comes to transparency.

For instance, the Trust fails to post the minutes of their meetings or the posting of any substantive financial information, and in the Trust's case, it continues - as of 7:15 AM - to include an outdated page identifying a handful of board members of the Trust who haven't been members for over 3 years, even though I have been pointing this problem out since January 21, 2020.

It was the followup to my efforts to get copies of this updated list of board members that seems to have set Book off.

All of this is further complicated by the fact that Book has by virtue of arm-twisting and behind the scenes maneuvering managed to maintain the Chairmanship of the Trust even though he doesn't live in Miami-Dade County, and long ago exceed the two, 3 year terms of membership allowed by the ordinance that set up the Trust.

Some would argue that Book personifies the self image of the indispensable leader.  Without him, or so the impression has been allowed to blossom, the Trust would falter and wither away. This view is supported by the way that Book controls every aspect of the Trust's activities, including being it's only official "spokesperson," as revealed in a 2016 article in the Miami Herald:

Copyrighted:  2011,2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

And so it came to pass that after sending him my follow up for the updated list of board members and public record requests #6 & #7, Book wrote me, taking me to task for my uppity and offensive behavior in exercising my rights to sent him public record requests

Here is his email:

I believe, like most reasonable people that the Trust has done a number of good things with the close to $500 million dollars they're received in the last 10 years, which has resulted in helping a lot of people who have found themselves homeless, but the Trust is not above being questioned and/or criticized for some of the things that they've done or not done, especially when it comes to dealing with the chronically homeless.

The Trust is a public agency funded by tax money and the fact that the very first sentence of Book's email to me states, "I am not required to ever respond to your emails, it’s not in my job description..." pretty much underscores the biggest problem that many people including me believe the Trust has, which is Ron Book's ego.

Book can't on the one hand be, "The Chairman," of the Homeless Trust and use that position to create a persona of being the czar of all things homeless in Miami-Dade County, and then on the other hand declare that not only is he not required to respond to my emails, but to also declare that,

          "I don’t work for the County, I'm not housed

          at the County, my appointed position doesn’t

          provide me with an office, it doesn’t provide me

          with a computer, so sending me an email that

          likely ended up in cyberspace by simply addressing

          to homeslesstrust@miamidade.gov would have

          never gotten to me."

None of those "I don't'" absolve him of the obligation to comply with the Florida public records law, or to operate the Trust with full transparency and accountability.

In fact, and if it is really true that emails addressed to him via the Homeless Trust's email address never reach him, then what does that say about the internal workings of the Trust?

What does happen to the emails sent to the Homeless Trust? Do they get answered, or do they get ignored and deleted?

From my initial experience in January of this year when I wrote and asked for a copy of an up-to-date list of their board of directors, it would appear that they get get ignored or deleted without being read because it took repeated requests before I did receive that list yesterday.

It's this kind of double-speak that concerns people and raises questions as to what is really going on inside that agency and whether the board of directors of the Trust board are anything other than a mailable rubber stamp for whatever Ron Book wants, regardless of whether there are alternative ideas or options for dealing with the problems that the Trust is empowered to deal with that he objects to?

One has to wonder, and I do, whether Book's long career of maneuvering through the backrooms of the State Capital has caused him to think that his exalted status an an Uber lobbyist had made him immune to any law that gets in the way of what he wants to do, or not do.  

Power corrupts, and over the years Book has unquestionably welded real power in the Tallahassee political arena, as well as in the municipalities that he represents in Tallahassee.

Book is also not the first lawyer I've run into who either doesn't know the public records law, or thinks that his version of that law is what I'm supposed to accept

While he can claim that he doesn't have to "respond" to my emails, that claim would only be correct if I were to send him emails asking him questions or wanting his response to an issue, but every email that I've ever sent to him has either been in response to an email he sent me first, or more importantly an email making a request for a public record.

Because it seems that Book is confused over what his responsibilities are to comply with public record requests, and to get everyone on the same page as we move forward, here's a step by step explanation of what the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust is, what the legal obligations of the Chairman and all of the members of that agency are, and what the Florida public record law says about who is responsible for complying with a public record request.

I - WHAT IS THE MIAMI-DADE HOMELESS TRUST

II - HOW IS A CHAIRMAN APPOINTED, AND WHAT IS HIS OBLIGATION TO OBEY FLORIDA'S SUNSHINE AND PUBLIC RECORD LAWS

III - WHAT IS FLORIDA'S PUBLIC RECORD LAW, AND WHO IS REQUIRED TO COMPLY

I've been doing what I do in one way or another all of my adult life, and along the way I've learned a number of valuable lessons, the most important being that if you're going to get in a street fight with anyone who wields real power, make sure to do it in the middle of the street where everyone can see it, because the worst thing to do is get caught in a dark alley.

I'm beginning to believe that this is going to be one of those fights!

I've never actually been homeless, but I've been on the streets in my life, and those experiences not only helped shape my world view, but they provided me with an understanding of what it really means to be "a client" of agencies like the Homeless Trust, as well as the rationale behind the desire of some homeless people for agencies like the Trust to leave them alone.

Ron Book claims that he wants respect?  Everybody in one way or another wants respect, and in this case respect starts with obeying the law.

It's that simple.

After 11 years of being rope-a-doped by the City of Miami I've quite frankly lost all tolerance for bullshit when it comes to asking for and receiving public records requests without sidebar comments, or denials that documents exist when they do, doctoring documents, or just outright refusing to turn them over.

Don't do those things, and we'll get along fine, or at least as fine as we'll get with the stories I'll end up writing.

Do any of those things we're going to have a very big problem.

As for the larger issues, issues such as how the Trust manages to spend so many tens of millions of dollars every year while the quality of life of the chronic homeless in Miami continues to be dependent on handouts and charity is one is long overdue for a frank and open discussion, as is how the Trust has spent almost A HALF BILLION DOLLARS in the last 10-12 years.

On those issues, it should have by now become apparent that after 11 years of doing what I do, you would think it would dawn on people that no matter what anyone says - and people have said a lot of stuff both truthful and lies about me in those 11 years - and no matter what anyone does, or decides to do in order to try and get me to stop doing what I do, that when the sun comes up the next morning I'm going to wake up and keep doing what I was doing the day before, because short of killing me - and I think I've also made myself very clear about anyone who entertains that idea to make sure you don't miss - that after the life I've led, and the years I spent in solitary confinement telling wardens how to run their prisons while in my underwear that I not only don't give a fuck about getting letters from people who are unhappy with what I do, but that once I get one of those letters it usually means that I've hit a nerve, and that nerve is often attached to something that the person doesn't want revealed.

Is there anything you don't want revealed, Ron Book?

Your new best pal,

al

HERE ARE MY PUBLIC RECORD REQUESTS 6 AND 7

May 18, 2020

Mr. Ron Book

Ms. Victoria Mallette

Miami-Dade Homeless Trust                                                             NUMBER 6

Via - email

Good Morning,

This is public record request under the provisions of Florida Chapter 119, aka, Florida's Public Record Act.

If for any reason you chose to not comply with my request you are required by law to provide me with a written response as to why you are claiming an exemption to the provisions of the law, and to do so with enough specificity that I can proceed to Circuit Court and let a judge decide whether your claim of exemption is valid.

In addition, while Florida statute does not provide a clear cut time limit for complying with public record requests, the court in Tribune Company v. Cannella, 458 So 2nd 1075, 1078-1079 (Fla 1984), determined that a custodian of records has the, "limited reasonable  time allowed the custodian to retrieve...and delete those portions of the record the custodian asserts are exempt."

THESE ARE MY REQUESTS:

1. I want a copy of the original contract for services between the Trust and The M Network.

2. I want a copy of the latest extension of that contract with any and all changes, and addendums.

3. I want the PAYMENT RECORD - in some municipalities also known as the CHECK REGISTER - for all of the reimbursable expenses paid The M Network for the years 2018, 2019, and 2020 to date.

4. I want a copy of the work product generated for the Trust by The M Network for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 to date, EXCLUDING their Twitter campaigns and the 2018 Homelessness Aware Day.

THIS IS A STAND ALONE REQUEST, and not subject to computation regarding time limits with any other public record record requests that I will be making to you.

If copies of these documents are mailed electronically, please email them to me.

Thank you,

al crespo

May 18, 2020

Mr. Ron Book

Ms. Victoria Mallette

Miami-Dade Homeless Trust                                            NUMBER 7

Via - email

Good Morning,

This is public record request under the provisions of Florida Chapter 119, aka, Florida's Public Record Act.

If for any reason you chose to not comply with my request you are required by law to provide me with a written response as to why you are claiming an exemption to the provisions of the law, and to do so with enough specificity that I can proceed to Circuit Court and let a judge decide whether your claim of exemption is valid.

In addition, while Florida statute does not provide a clear cut time limit for complying with public record requests, the court in Tribune Company v. Cannella, 458 So 2nd 1075, 1078-1079 (Fla 1984), determined that a custodian of records has the, "limited reasonable  time allowed the custodian to retrieve...and delete those portions of the record the custodian asserts are exempt."

THIS IS MY REQUEST:

1. A copy of the annual report “summarizing and evaluating all programs and activities undertaken by the Trust during the previous year for the years 2017, 2018, 2019 as stipulated by the ordinance that created the Trust.

2. In your 2017-2018 Multi-Year Capital Plan, you include a Financial Summary. Please provide me with the original document that this financial summary was taken from.

THIS IS A STAND ALONE REQUEST, and not subject to computation regarding time limits with any other public record record requests that I will be making to you.

If copies of these documents are mailed electronically, please email them to me.

Thank you,

al crespo

https://www.crespogramnews.com/may-19th---ron-book-writes-me.html