Think What You See or See what You Think?

Who do we trust in the media? This question might sound depressing to many of us but people need to realize that media and technology are controlling our minds constantly these days. Sports new, political debates and news in general are covered by different media outlets, but where do we stop and actually listen?

Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe series on BBC tends to pick up on Fox News, one of the five highest rated television in America, and how they excaudate the problem of violence among the people in Haiti after the tragic earthquake. On the other side CNN is showing how much America helped Haiti and the positive outcome for them. Here we see how the media can shape people’s opinion based on the network they are used to watch. The people who always watch Fox will never know the other side of the situation. According to Manjoo, “we indulge information that pleases us and cocoon ourselves among others who think as we do.”

A great example given by Public Policy President Dean Debnam identified the real reason for Fox’s power: “A generation ago you would have expected Americans to place their trust in the most neutral and unbiased conveyors of news, but the media landscape has really changed, and now they’re turning more toward the outlets that tell them what they want to hear.” Following the same idea, people who watched Fox will look for stats that say how much people died after the earthquake rather than looking for statistics that will say how much people survived because of the rescue teams who went to Haiti and helped them in the struggle.

I am an immigrant and I remember how back in 2002 my grandparents used to call us after every hurricane in Florida and ask us if we are OK. The media in Europe presented the damages of the hurricanes in the worst possible way by showing the most tragic video footage that they had. On the other hand, here we knew that it was just a storm and nothing happen, but because of the media outlet oversees my grandparents have formed their knowledge. Here we see how the media can push the objectivity of the news called hostile media phenomenon.

By reading “True enough” by Manjoo I realize why people tend to stick to what they think is true even though the facts show the opposite. Selective perception and naive realism described in the book and backed up by the facts around the 9/11 tragedy theories. Another example like this would be the liberalization of the visa regime between Bulgaria and the United States. It use to be only three months and now is ten years for all travelers and business visas. All American people were against the liberalization of the visa regime, while Bulgarian’s were thinking that this is the best thing that can happen for their country. Both sides were not experiencing the same thing even though the facts were the same for both parties. American people can freely go to Bulgaria for vacation, but they don’t want Bulgarians to come freely to their country.

Another interesting issue that Majoo touch on in his book is the age of easy lying. I can’t mention the Ipad and all the blogs, videos, and photos that are available on the Web. More and more people are using the web to get their news, communicate and form their own opinions. “iPad Tortured to Death in Mass Social Experiment “ is a video in which Alex Jones, radio host, takes on a mental experiment that proves how the Ipad takes over people’s minds and they tend to forget that they are humans. Technology changes and manipulates people’s views. Alex Jones destroys the Ipad because he wants to prove a point, “whether humanity will concern itself with more with the senseless destruction of a computer than it does with the torture and senseless killing of more than a million Iraqis (to put forward one example) along with countless others across the globe.” To view the video by Alex Jones visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyEhWeAseSo&feature=player_embedded

Farhad Manjoo and his book “True Enough” helped me understand how the media effect people’s views about the world around them. I knew that the media is a powerful persuasive tool, but not as far powerful as Manjoo presents it with his examples. After I read the book I think that professors in mass communications schools should make it a mandatory reading for students who want to become journalists. Al I can say is that “True Enough” helped me understand the difference between being a regular viewer and being a journalist.

A Walk in the Court House

Three hour walk in Hillsborough County Clerk of Circuit Court? Well, it sounds boring and repetitive because I was just there a month ago, but I was wrong. This time I was able to observe a trial hearing in a felony court. I have never been in a situation like this before and I felt like I was watching a movie.

I started my visit by going to the felony department. I walked into the desk where people were waiting to get hold of felony records in order to ask the people at the desk if there are any trials going on at this point of time. It was a little bit before lunch time and there were not much trial courts going on, but I was lucky to catch one. On the 5th floor of the court house in court 51A, Judge Emmett Lamar Battles’ trial case was going on break so I had to come back later to listen to it. This case involved home invasion as well as gun shooting.

I used the lunch break to go around the other important departments in the court house. I went to citrus civil court to look up some document on my public profile political figure. There I found that I was not the only person who was looking for case documents. The people at the room were mostly attorneys. I had to fill out a request form for which case I was looking for and what type of request I had. I could both view the docs and give them back or I had to put a request for prints. At this same room people where dealing with a lot of foreclosure and mortgage cases as well.

When I found out that my case documents were destroyed I went down to the first floor to check the docs in family law department. I was mainly looking for marriage license records for my public profile, but I could not find any information by looking at the computers at the room. One of the ladies at the department’s desk helped me to look if there are actual docs for my person. She was able to find some case docs, but not the once I was looking for. I went to pay my $1 a page fee at the front desk. While I was waiting on the long lines I observed how chaotic the situation in child support department and traffic is. The lines were endless. Some people were filling new cases and others were paying their current fees. I remembered how Path Frank was saying that her staff was short, but this time I experienced it myself. The lines were endless and the workers were doing what they could but unfortunately their work power was not enough to deal with the work load. The process was very slow. Even I had to wait thirty minutes to pay my five pages.

I came back to the court room after their brake and then it hit me. The case I was listening to was true. I was not sitting in a movie theater; I was sitting in a court room. The witnesses were coming one by one and the attorneys for the plaintiff and the defendant were asking questions and then showing their evidences to the jury people. I was able to see some of the witnesses from the sheriff department who were the detectives and crime investigators that responded on the home invasion and gun shooting call back in July, 2009. They were explaining how the process went and who they talked to at the scene. I was able to record some of the witness’s names as well as the plaintiff’s name but I rather not mention them here because I am not sure if I can. I looked up the case and the arrests made just of curiosity after I left the room. Felony cases take a lot of time and jurors didn’t look very happy to be there again and again. to follow the case here the link to it:http://publicrecord.hillsclerk.com/oridev/criminal_pack.ap?pcSearchMode=NS&pnPidm=952050&pcCaseId=09-CF-007748&pnCnt=9999

After the court house, my final stop was at the State Attorney’s Office to see if I can look for any more records but there were none for the public profile person.

School Board of Hillsborough County Meeting

Free parking space at Downtown Tampa! Is that an April 1 joke or is it true? I was really surprised from the moment the security personnel at the parking lot told me that on the days of School Board meetings visitors can park for free. I entered the building and I heard a beautiful sound coming from the piano played by a disabled high school student. So far my experience was nothing like I am used to on other public meetings.

I entered the meeting hall and I decided to approach Doretha W. Edgecomb, Vice Chair of the school board. She was sitting alone at the table of the board and I was wondering what will be the hottest issues that they are going to discuss at the meeting. School board policies and operations were the main issues that I was about to hear at the meeting.

Susan L. Valdes, Chair of the board, started the meeting by first focusing on the Virtual Instruction Program Re-Organization of structure. For this to happen the Hillsborough School Board have a manager position designed to overlook the process. According to April Griffin, Manager Position, every student in the high school level needs to have one virtual course completed before graduation and there is some legislature passed about this matter. This program will save the district a lot money and the actual savings right now are $97 850. board member, said “Virtual School is the Thing Now.” He also added that this program is here to prepare more students to get into college and actually survive when they are there. Virtual school is the next step to college.

The next item on the agenda was the approved grants application for several scholarship programs. The members of the board mention that there are a lot of partnerships involved in these programs in order to happen. One reason why those programs are there is to support adult community classes.

The approve contract and schedule of payments between SEER Analytics and Hillsborough County Public Schools were described by “the best money spend by Hillsborough School System,” said Kurdell-Jack R. Lamb. Also accordant to him this program will become a model for other districts.

The approved subagreement between the University of South Florida and Hillsborough County Public School for Services Associated with HCPS Role in the Federal Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Grant Program, Project REACH – Recognizing Extraordinary Accomplishments of Children is the first government money given for gifted students, according to Mr. Lamb. Nine schools from the county will be included in this program.

Toward the end of the Hillsborough County School Board Meeting the citizens that were there were able to give their comments and concerns about the issues, which were presented. The first three gentlemen that were able to speak to the members presented their concern about private security companies being unable to work in the county schools. They wanted to see why their contracts were not resigned and there was no competition entry available. Even though this issue was not mentioned in the meeting the members of the committee said they will try to address the item next time they meet. The board’s attorney knew more about the issue and he said he would present the details to the board and Susan L. Valdes, Chair so they can work on it.
For more info visit: http://apps1.sdhc.k12.fl.us/

Root of all Good or Evil!

In his second visit to USF Preston Trigg, Director of Administration & Special Projects, cover one of the least favorite topics for journalists, budgets. If you ask most journalists they would say that their job is to write, but the reality is that they should also know how to operate money.

According to Trigg every government agency that we as journalist are going to visit will have a budget. Here in Florida most likely those budget records will be open public records that we as reporters can look at it. Well managed budget will have equal revenue and expenses.

In addition to the revenue and expenses government budgets include facts and background information about the agency. Usually the government will meet in advance in order to plan the next year’s budget based on the information from the previous year’s budget cuts or increases. For some people budgets are complicated topic, but as we know asking questions doesn’t hurts as long as those questions come on time.

For people who have no idea what revenue and expenses mean Trigg explains it as money coming in need to equal money going out. The confusion for journalists continues when they keep hearing the government officials to refer to end cycling period of the budget as a fiscal year. If there is any extra money in the revenue they will be carried over for the next year.

Where revenue does comes from for the government budget? The answer is most of the money collected at the tax collector go towards the revenue of the budget. The list includes property and sales taxes, user fees, fines, occupational licenses, and state and federal grants. Don’t be surprised if you see major increases in water bills or property taxes especially at today’s recession! The revenue is short and the increases will fill up the empty spots in the revenue.

Money going out as I mention earlier are the expenses. They are separated to personal (salaries), capital (constructions), and operating (utilities, travel). Here is where journalist should take a deep look for any major expenses especially in the personal and capitol sector of the government budget.

In every budget there is miscellaneous money and usually they cause problem to most government agencies especially when journalists want to look at the data.

Again government budgets are complicated and we as journalist should simplify them as much as we can for our readers.

Tampa- Certified Gold Green City

Mayer’s citizen/TECO Energy Conservation Task Force meeting took place at the Mayer’s, Pam Iorio, conference room on Thursday afternoon. Going into this meeting I didn’t expect to sit just a couple of seats away from the Mayer. Actually, this was my first time seeing her in person. Pam Iorio welcomed all of the citizens and she made it very specific that those kinds of meetings are recorded and the Sunshine Laws require them to have the conversations taped.

Did you know that Tampa is one of the few cities in the America that is been certified as a Gold Green City? I didn’t. As a matter of fact TECO is the electrical company in town that helps the government to reach the green status of the city.

TECO works with the Mayer Pam Iorio and her energy conservation task force member on the green project for about a year now and they are trying to find the most efficient way to save energy and keep the city green. Those members included representatives from different organizations in town that are directly involved with the management of the energy use. The City of Tampa Staff attendees were also present at the meeting along with two representatives from TECO.

For over a year this force committee is been working on several recommendations on how to achieve energy savings. At the meeting the Mayer wanted to move forward and focus on the action plan that should be happening now in order to keep the progress in going green. Some members recommended education plan to be planned for the middle class residence to spread the word about their goal. She followed this offer by saying, “Do we want to target homes that use the most energy?” An example of this would be the people in the rich areas of Tampa.

According to the Mayer, TECO made some suggestions to their energy users but she wants to see soon a marketing plan on how to reach more people and businesses and make them aware that energy use is an issue. The educational idea was an interesting point, but the budgets don’t allow any money spending at this time.

Sharon Hanna, USF-Dept. of Mgmt & Org College of Business, offered her students research help for a future data which might be needed for accomplishing the Energy Conservation Task Force goals.

An interesting point made by C. J. Raynolds, Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association, included the small businesses knowledge on how to cut their use of energy and cost at the same time. She said that those companies don’t know and don’t pay much attention to saving the green world. TECO should focus on those types of energy customers in order to make a difference in their usage.

Stephen Koontz, Tampa Bay Trane, said the he is looking for something that will bring faster results for energy savings. He mentioned the $50 instilment kid for energy users offered by TECO that made a quick progress within customers.

In closing the long debate about the best idea for energy savings the Mayer asked the Task Force member to continue on working on this project with her because this is the best way she would stay informant of the “going green issue.”

Unusual and Final Trip

Dr. Vernard Adams is a Chief Medical Examiner for Hillsborough County. His twenty years of experience and ironic character talks to a great extend for his professionalism.
http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/medexam/about/director.cfm
At first I was confused between coroner and medical examiner because they both investigate death scene.

Dr. Adams referred us to Florida Statute 406.11 in order to understand the specific control of the Medical Examiner in response to a death occurred in his district or where the body was found to determine the cause of death when a person dies from the following:
- Criminal Violence
- Accident, suicide or poison
- Suddenly, when in apparent good health
- Unattended by a practicing physician or other recognized practitioner
- In any prison or penal institution
- In any suspicious or unusual circumstances
- By criminal Abortion
- By disease constituting a threat to public heath
- By disease, injury, or toxic agent resulting from employment
In continuation to the said above, the Medical Examiner is free to perform autopsies and other laboratory examinations, which will further explain the unknown to the public.

Six medical examiners and six autopsy physicians are available for Dr. Adams when they need to perform their forensic investigation in death scenes. Due to budget cuts the Medical Examiner’s Office stopped their overnight investigations.

Chapter 406.02 says that the Medical Examiner Office need dispose, cremate, and donate all unclaimed bodies. Tissues and organs
donating is done every day with the help of Live-link Donors.

In the second part of our visit Dr. Adams took us around the Medical Examiner’s facilities to show us all the documents and procedures done by his staff.

Each investigation case has a file that contains vital information for the public, next of kin, attorneys, and the investigators. You might think that death certificates are not public record, and you are right, but only for the medical part of it. Any undergoing investigation results, HIV test, hospital records, and autopsy pictures and videos are not public record. Rather than that the general autopsy report is public record, as well as examiners findings, supporting evidence, and attorney correspondence. An interesting fact about obtaining public records from the Medical Examiner’s office was that they don’t charge the regular fee of 15 cents a page. They ask for 2 stamps, an envelope, and a written request of what documents you want and they will send it to you for free.

To top of our visit, Dr. Adams took us trough the toxicology laboratories where we met Chief Forensic Toxicologist Dr. Pearson. There we saw the machines that analyses the blood and tissues for alcohol and drugs elements.

Just across the extraction laboratory we enter the autopsy lab where the autopsy medical personnel were working on three current cases. As soon as we cross the door we saw a death body. I just hope that I would never go back there for any type of info. I wonder how those people decide to work at the autopsy lab??????????

Judicial system in Hillsborough County

Being a Clerk of Circuit Court seems a powerful position that many people probably want to have, but wait until you know how much workload is expected to be done by Pat Frank. The responsibilities that clerk Frank deals with don’t end at the courthouse. She is also responsible for the finance investment portfolio for Hillsborough County, which equals to a million dollars.
The biggest concern that Pat Frank has is the 8% budget cuts for administrative cost that the courthouse is facing. The vast amount of workload is done by less and less people after the first cut of 117 employees but the only way the courthouse will survive is if the clerk takes another pay cut from her departments

.
We as citizens have to ask the state legislators how they expect the Hillsborough County Courthouse to survive when they don’t do anything to help it. They even want nine additional judges to the court system in the county which will have to be paid by Mrs. Pat Frank. But the problem doesn’t end there, those judges each need three clerks to deal with their dockets for the cases, which makes the money problem even bigger.

With the recession we are in today our judicial system deals with more and more violations of the law are seen. The workload is overwhelming for each department in the courthouse that deals with family law cases, civil cases, felony cases, juvenile cases, misdemeanors cases, and traffic court cases. Those people not only maintain the paperwork of the cases for 75 years, but they also keep all of the evidences that go along with the cases.

The worries that Mrs. Frank has don’t end up with the 8% budget cuts. She also has to worry about converting all the data that the court maintains into electronic documents. The case documents are not safe at the warehouse on Falkenburg Rd. because they can be easily destroyed by any type of natural disaster. This long process is delayed for years due to pay cuts and workload volume.

Dana Caranante, Director of Juvenile Court Operations, in the office of Clerk of the Circuit Court, took us through family law department, civil case department, traffic, and felony case departments to see the amount of paperwork they keep. She also showed us how we can access the records available there. The only records we can’t copy for a $1 are the child abuse records because they are confidential.

Dana Caranante provided the class with some helpful tips and websites which will guide us when we are looking for public records in the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County.

Clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County - http://www.hillsclerk.com/
To search the Court Progress Docket-http://publicrecord.hillsclerk.com/oridev/criminal_pack.ins
Florida Statutes- http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statuts/
Florida Rules of Procedure- http://www.floridabar.org/
13th Judicial Circuit- http://www.fljud13.org/
To search official records- http://pubrec3.hillsclerk.com/oncore/Search.aspx

Best of the best: Investigative reporter Steve Andrews

“I like doing what I do,” Steve Andrews. Primo investigating reporter with 25 years of experience talks for itself how high on his job is he today. There is no need of explanation who is he because tax payers in the Tampa Bay area know him closely through his revealing stories.

“On your side: News Channel 8”. Steve Andrew backs up his TV station’s slogan very well because his investigative stories open the eyes of many residents in the Tampa Bay area. He shows them how tax dollars are going in the wrong direction with the help of government agencies.

WFLA-TV 8 and Steve Andrews’s fascinating story about Workforce Alliance $ 20,000 spending on food brought attention not only to the public, but to many politicians on state and federal level. With the help of state agency public records, great amount of tips from people, and the powerful silence on TV the investigative reporting showed how taxpayers money fly away. NO JOBS for you people: SORRY we will eat our $9 a piece cheesecakes! The public and the lawyers’ strong responses of the story led to many changes in the Workforce Alliance agency. Steve Andrews showed the cultural political phenomena that people didn’t expected to see especially now.

According to Steve Andrews, public records are gold mine. He explained that the records take a lot of time to look through, but at the end they give us the key information. In investigative reporting we have to work until the stories are done. Mr. Andrews explained how his polite way of approaching people during his investigations give him extra power along the way. Bullying people during investigative reporting make the reporter look bad to his audience. Another good advice is that a reporter always have to have three key questions prepared to ask when he goes to a story. People usually get off subject to distract the reporter, but the written questions will always bring the reporter back on topic.

“Find the next logical Step”. Steve Andrews bombarded us with great advices, which will lead us in the right direction. His long time teacher Mr. Gil Thelen also added: Don’t wait, be a proactive reporter. What that means is to look ahead what’s coming up in the news world. Government meetings have agendas which usually give reporters clues if there is going to be an interesting issue discussion. BE READY!

In conclusion I would say that Steve Andrews’ professionalism was very impressive. He can be a role model to many future reporters. From him I learned that is worth knowing the rules and regulations in government because they are your guide in the work place.

Money talk in Politics

Money, Money, Money! Who can reject them in those tough times? Not only today or tomorrow politicians will go away from some extra campaign cash. This is why there are so many political reporters who work full time just studying campaign financing and lobbying records. One of those experienced political reporters is William March- Windy.

Mr. March was kind enough to share one of his successful stories, which he published on March, 16 1997 at the Tampa Tribune. He was kind enough to walk us through the steps he took in order to cover the story.

Back in 1997 Windy spend a good amount of time to complete his story, while today he said this type of political reporting can be done by “three clicks with the mouse.” I was not really surprised by this fact because today many public records are available on the web. What actually surprise me were the accurint reports on people that are available for political journalists. I’ve never seen a report that contains all of the important public records for a certain an individual. It was interesting to hear where political reporters start their research and how they reach the end of their stories.

Violation of campaign finance law seems to be the biggest trap for politicians. Money laundering can be done on the state or federal level. What this says is that the illegal political money is looking clean. They are two types, hard or soft money. Hard money is used for individual’s political campaigns, and on the other hand, soft money is used in political party’s campaigns. To make the system work corporations are asking their employees to contribute to a certain politician so they can benefit after that person steps into office. The example that Windy gave us was a report about the largest amount of soft money contributed in 1996 by a Future Tech Corporation from Miami, FL. Wendy’s editor saw the story at New York Times and hand it to him to go on his journey.

According to Wendy, a good political reporter has to know how to use the web correctly when searching for campaign suspicious financing either on state or federal level. There are many ways an individual contribution can be tracked. It is a common sense that if a person contribute to a party the top amount of money and did not even voted for them, there is something wrong. Also some of those contributors did not even have a voter registration from the past. Seems a funny fact, but this is the reality in Windy’s story.

Overall I learned that campaign financing is a complicated subject, but if I want to become part of the media watchdogs, I better know how political reporting works. As future journalists I was blessed to be provided with some of the most useful web sites that can help me when I track political campaigns financing.

http://www.safereview.com/
http://www.opensecrets.org/ – for tracking various industries that contributed and to whom
http://www.fec.gov/ - search the disclosures
http://www.moneyline.cq.com/ – individual search

Public Information vs. Government Fraud

Preston Trigg, a director of administration and special projects for Hillsborough County Tax Collector, and his speech made me realize how much I have to know in order to become a great journalist. Since Mr. Trigg is a former journalist, he was able to explain in orderly fashion how public records at his current work place will make my journalistic career easier and productive in the future.

According to Mr. Trigg journalist must be very strong adequate for the First Amendment, The Law of Transparency, and openness from the government. He emphasize that information needs to be out there and to back his words he quoted the founding father, Thomas Jefferson, “Biggest tread to people is government secrecy.”
Hillsborough County Tax Collector gives us access to one of the most important public records available to a journalist, which is property tax information. At this constitutional office we can also find business tax database and motor vehicle records. All of this information can be researched by name, address, and section of town at http://www.hillstax.org.

Preston Trigg put a great emphasis on how important is for a journalists to know what is known as public record according to the Florida Statute Sec 119.001 (11). He also explained who can get those records and what the rules are. As an experience media person Mr. Trigg shared some trick of trades for public records like putting in writing request of the public records, citing exemptions and nature of records the agency isn’t giving us, asking for the cost up front, inspecting records rather than spending money for copies, recording crimes of not releasing a record, giving reasonable timeframe, and always to be aware of the competition. For journalists is especially important to know that a written request of a record is a public record.

What every reporter should do? According to Mr. Trigg we should always look for the money, especially when government is involved. Second, always check for the truth. Third, don’t let them fool you around.

To conclude his presentation Mr. Trigg presented the most important records a reporter should ask for when he or she goes to the constitutional agency. I was surprised how far a journalist must go in order to reach the truth in a given story. The list includes budget, organizational chart, financial disclosure, five years of any gift disclosures made, one year of pay roll records for ten-highest paid officials in that agency, one year of bills for all credit cards held by reporting individual. To continue we have to include the top ten highest paid travel records, educational, and automobile expenses. Finally here it comes again the list of all written 119 requests made in the past year by the reporting individual.

In conclusion I would say that Mr. Trigg gave us the most thorough
information about public information within his agency compare to the once we’ve be visiting so far. He made it clear that the only way we can watch our government is by looking as far as we can in order to reach the truth.

Helpful web site for the public can be: http://www.zillow.com
OVER ALL- Follow the money!

Think twice before you cross the line!

Wooden doors and direct supervision is how the Orient Road Jail works in Hillsborough County today. This might not sound too bad comparing to what we are use to see on the movie screen, but once you enter those doors you records are in the system.

Unfortunately, I missed the trip to the Orient Road Jail and I watched the video from the tour that was recorded last semester. The tour was given by Lt. Scott Smith who is a shift commander at the jail. According to him the jail system have done beyond from what it used to be 20 years ago. Wooden doors replaced the old linear system and direct supervision became the way inmates are controlled.


An interesting fact for Orient Road jail is that they are the only booking facility for 27 arresting agencies in Hillsborough County. There the inmates stay for four to six hours before they are moved to intake housing. If they get booked before midnight, they will see the judge at first appeal court in the morning. If the inmates are booked after midnight, they have to wait for 24 hours before they appear in front the judge. Inmates can leave the court if they pay their bonds, but if the bond is for a large amount of money the people who pay the bond need to prove the legal ownership that money. This is a precaution taken from the judge.

Usually 200 inmates are booked every day at Hillsborough County Jail. Finger prints, incident reports, medical exams, mug shots, video footage, and phone calls are all public records. Some of those records can be web accessed at: http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/PublicInquiry/ArrestInquiry.

According to Lt. Smith the jail’s capacity is 1700 inmates, but at that time they had only 999 inmates in their seven housing units. The average jail time for most of them is 19 days, but it can go to a year or even more. Some inmates go and comeback and their records still remain in the jail’s record system. Usually one deputy is assigned to 72 inmates in a pod, but in confine cells there are 3 deputies in a pod of 64 inmates.

Last but not least, the visitations to the inmates are now done through video recording, which are also public records along with the monitoring calls that each inmate makes.

Criminal records are something that can hunt you down all the way through life, so think twise before you cross the door of Hillsborough County Jail’s doors.

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office – one big family of professionals

Something different, something new, something that I would never imagine seeing before in my everyday life, these are the 911 Emergency Center and the Public Information Office at Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

A memorable moment of my visit to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office was time spend with Brad Herron, Communication Center 911 commander, and his team of professionals. “One big family” of 155 employees which annually collect 1.5 million calls from the public in the law enforcement outlet of Hillsborough County. Those well trained professionals control where, when, and how the police exercises their law enforcement power.

According to public records all call recorded at the 911 Emergency Center are public record with the exception of phone numbers and addresses who are edited for safety reasons.

Across the street from the Communication Center, Deputy Larry McKinnon, Public Information Office, and Cristal Bermudez, Media Relations, work together to create a better communication between the media and the police. An interesting fact that stood out in the presentation was the police department’s effort to become a news outlet. When and how is this happening? I can’t really answer this question, but Mr. McKinnon was very positive and motivated when he explained how the police feed the media through media alerts with the latest information. He made a major point that they are trying to have a smooth relationship with the media because those two power houses need to serve the people the best possible way. On one side the police wants factual information presented to the public, and on the other side, the media wants cooperation when they are trying to collect the news.

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has made a tremendous improvement in obtaining their public records. Now all reports are filed electronically and they are maintained on hard drives. The police is now part of the “Go Green” campaign and they’ve saved $40 000 of paper cost.

During the lecture Mr. McKinnon and Mrs. Bermudez emphasized the importance of Statue 119, which represents the standard operating procedure for news releases and media cooperation from the Sheriff’s Office. This stature represents how public records are accessed. One of the important facts for SRA’s criminal reports is that it can’t be filed and accessed before the investigation is complete. Those reports are first available at the jail records and later in the clerk’s office. According to the 119 statue, DUI reports are available in the Sheriff’s Office records. Florida traffic crash reports are also available there after 60 day of the accident. Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office web site is another public record outlet which gives access to press releases as well as individual’s charge reports.

Overall, I was really impressed how Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office communicates with the media. I also admire those special people who put a tremendous effort to work on one of those hot chairs at 911 Emergency Center.

Chris Davis- Investigative reporting

Chris Davis is a data based specialist at the Sarasota Herald- Tribune. His great team of investigative reporters has made the paper one the best medium size papers in Florida. The main key for their success is their extensive use of public records.

To emphasize the value of public record and their attribution to investigative reporting, Chris Davis introduced the flipping fraud case done by the Herald- Tribune. According to him this case was a lost battle if the journalist’s didn’t know how to take advantage of the Sunshine laws.

The flipping fraud case turned out to be a state wide problem. Speculators were driving the home market by buying a property and then have it unlawfully appraised in a higher price. In a period of 90 days the price of the property increased with 30% and more. The deals were done by people who knew each other. Their main goal was to trick the banks by asking them for loans to cover the expenses for the illegally appraised property. This circle of people was basically stilling the bank’s money.
To indentify the people who did the fraud, the Herald- Tribune’s investigative team asked each individual county in the state to provide them data base of 18 million sales from property appraisers. Public records helped to tie the chain between those people and 55 thousand suspicious flips were discovered. The reporters made a deep and explicit investigation in order to get the job done. They organized the data and present their results to the public by using program language, helpful graphs, and maps.

In his lecture, Chris Davis was kind enough to share how an investigative reporter went after a murder case from the 60’s. The only way he was able to track the data were the public records at the sheriff’s office. The more impressive part of this murder case was the illustrations of the data and the graphic designs on the web. Those tools dramatically enhance the story telling.
Another memorable part of the lecture by Mr. Davis was the investigation done on abusive teachers. The public has the right to know who is teaching their kids. Unfortunately according to Davis and his investigative team a lot of those teachers still have their teaching licenses even though their cross the line between them and their students. The Herald- Tribune made an online database where parents can search their child’s school for insulting teachers. In order to build the online database the paper created text documents by scanning all public records on those teacher. To merge all sources together the reporters need it SSC records of the teachers. Those SSC were the bridge for the news organization to finish their investigative reporting. The First Amendment Organization came into play to protect the media of accessing the SSC records.

Overall I realized that the web and the new technology enhances the storytelling and gives the public in depth information. I was surprised how many obstacles investigative reporters have to go through in order to provide the public with the information they deserve.

Cheryl McCoy-USF Public Records Resources

Cheryl McCoy is a Coordinator of General Collections and Government Documents for the University of South Florida. She has done a tremendous job of putting together a course guide on the USF libraries web page for my Public Affairs Reporting class. This guide will play an important role in the process of completing my profile on Kevin C. Amber, Florida House Representative. By following the instructions given by Mrs. McCoy I found out how I can easily access public information through the web. That doesn’t mean that all of the records I need are online, but is a good starting point. According to Mrs. McCoy a lot of the public record agencies want people to physically go and pick up the information they need. A great example of this is trying to look up the salaries of all USF professors. I could find the budged of USF in the online public records, but I couldn’t find the exact individual salaries of each professor. Those records can be only found at the USF library for 15 cents a copy.
I realized that the lectures done by Cheryl McCoy and the one done by Tim Nickens have a lot in comment. They both mention that Florida is one of the few states who have open access to public records. Also they both explain the rules of using those records. It was interesting to hear that Governor Charlie Crist, is a strong supporter of public records access for Floridians. With his help journalist can do their investigative reporting to a greater extend and serve the public the way they should be serving it.
I was able to look up what mortgages my sister owns, I was able to find people’s marriage certificates, however I could not look up all the details of a death certificate. Cheryl McCoy said that I am able to access the death certificate, but not able to know the cause of the death. According to her some public record are not available because of personal privacy issues. There is a drawn line for security reasons.
The course guide that Mrs. McCoy has put together for us offers direct access to many government websites and newspapers archives. She said that USF subscribes to the Tribune Newspaper and we are able to access their archives for free through Lexis-Nexis.
I left the room with a bag full of tips on how to access public records through the web which will help me enormous in my journalistic career.

Tim Nickens- St. Petersburg Times

The visit by guest speaker Tim Nickens, editorial page editor at St. Petersburg Times, and trustee at First Amendment Foundation, helped me to expend my knowledge of public records and their value. By listening to Mr. Nickens I realized how helpful public records can be to journalists as well as to the general public. Having the strongest open records in Florida makes it easier for us to keep a check on the illegal actions taken by the government. I was surprised how well St. Petersburg Times was able to use public records in order to investigate the unlawful use of public money by Florida's House Speaker, Ray Sansom. The public in the Tampa Bay Area is fortunate to have a great newspaper with aggressive journalists who know how to keep their eyes on the powerful officials in Florida. Mr. Nickens gave us great tips on how to get prepared for public meetings. it was interesting to find that big decisions which impact the most public budgets are made only in the back room by the three most powerful officials of the State. Legislatures are trying to hide their actions as much as they can from the public because they know they will be criticized every time they step out-of-the-proper way. Now legislatures are using texting or phones conversations to talk about their decision making for important issues rather than having an open public meeting. Technology became a double edge source for public records because officials use it as much as they can to hide their actions. I was surprised to hear that there is an issue in the access of personal vs. public e-mails records for the government officials. Mr. Nickens gave us a great tip on how much fees agencies and government can charge when people request public records. Some of those public record houses try to make their own rules on the fees to control the access of public records. We have to remember, 15 cents a copy is the law for public records. Also, the lowest paid staff member is used to perform the supervision of accessing public records by the public. In recent years the media found a great success in the use of public records in order to keep track of political facts that are being used by government candidates in their campaigns. Journalists are able to follow the truth about political campaigning ads and speeches by using the value of public records. To capture my blog I would say that I am surprised to see how many public records are out there for us to use that we don’t even know about. Public records can only help us to make our lives easier and more successful. Public records are there to show society how government uses their power.

Getting Started

Hello to all blogger colleagues!

Blogging will be my new journey during this Spring Semester 2010.I've heard of blogging and I've read some blogs but I never did it. I am use to writing journals, but I think blogging will be a lot more fun for me and my readers. Welcome to my page!