A Sarasota judge will hold a hearing next month to determine whether a county baseball consultant should turn over documents under provisions of Florida’s government in the sunshine and public records laws.
Circuit Judge Robert Bennett will weigh arguments from Sarasota County government and Daniel Barrett, the consultant. The documents have been requested by Sarasota Citizens for Responsible Government and Citizens for Sunshine.
Barrett and his company, Barrett Sports Group of Manhattan Beach, Calif., were hired in September 2008 to provide facilitation and consulting to help the county secure a Major League Baseball team to play spring training in Sarasota. Barrett and his company work with professional sports teams.
The contract was extended in June to finalize negotiations with the Baltimore Orioles. In late July, the deal with the team was concluded.
Citizens for Responsible Government and Citizens for Sunshine opposed the deal; they subsequently requested thousands of pages of documents and e-mails from the county and its consultants. The two groups are represented by lawyers Andrea Flynn Mogensen and Michael Barfield.
They asked Barrett on Oct. 16 to provide "all e-mails sent or received by you or your agency relating to negotiations or discussions between the Baltimore Orioles, City of Sarasota, Sarasota County, Sarasota County Chamber of Commerce, and any other individual or entity that participated in such negotiations or discussions." In addition, they asked for any e-mail attachments, text messages, phone logs, travel and expense logs and other documents related to the baseball deal.
Barrett wrote back on Oct. 22. "Please note that my computer crashed on October 5, and the hard drive was initially not recoverable." He added, "After sending it to an industry specialist they were able to retrieve some of the hard drive document files but Microsoft Outlook was not recoverable. My last backup was in March, unfortunately."
"[I have] moved my Sarasota files to storage," Barrett continued, "so it will take me some time to get the files and relevant copies filed. So you are aware my billing rate is $400/hour and I will need to get an estimate of copying charges. I will then give you an estimate of the overall expense to respond to your request."
Mogensen and Barfield filed a "petition for writ of mandamus" on Nov. 13 to compel the county and Barrett "to provide access to public records under Chapter 119, Florida Statutes …" The case fell to Circuit Judge Bennett. who has some experience in these matters, having presided over the Venice City Council’s recent public records suit.
Bennett on Nov. 23 wrote a "show cause" order saying the plaintiffs "have demonstrated a preliminary basis for relief, and therefore [the court] finds it appropriate to direct the defendants to show cause as to why the relief set forth in the petition should not be granted via a written response within twenty days after service of this order."
Bennett said he would hear oral arguments on Jan. 29 at 9 a.m. in the R.L. Anderson Administration Center in Venice.
In response to a request for comment, Barrett sent an e-mail to the Pelican Press: "Barrett Sports Group has been in contact with representatives from the Sarasota Citizens for Responsible Government and Citizens for Sunshine. We have attempted to cooperate with their representatives and have offered to provide all of the documents they have requested that are in our possession. We look forward to presenting the facts of this case in court."
Cathy Antunes, chairman of both those groups, told the Pelican, "Sarasota County was a one-time customer for Dan Barrett." She added. "For the next 30 years, we don’t need him anymore. He works exclusively with professional sports. Who does Dan Barrett want to be happy? His real customer is not Sarasota County."
January 15th 2010 - 10:17AM