Manatee County violated public records law during animal shelter living conditions case

Manatee County was found to have violated public records laws after a volunteer raised alarm about living conditions at the county's animal shelter.

The civil lawsuit, filed in November by Paul David Daniels, claims Manatee County withheld emails he requested without a valid statutory citation in violation of Florida statutes.

The violation came amidst a years-long legal battle between Daniels and Manatee County.

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In that case, Daniels filed a lawsuit in the Florida Middle District Court against the county after he was fired on June 16, 2020, from a volunteer position for posting negative information on Facebook about living conditions at the county's animal shelter, according to court records.

Daniels had grown increasingly concerned over the way animal services housed dogs outdoors with little to no air ventilation, particularly during Florida's extreme summer heat. The matter came to a head in September 2019, when a dog that was kept outdoors all summer had become ill and was found dead in her cage, court records show.

Daniels took to Facebook to voice his concerns and was fired from his volunteer position in June 2020. Daniels claimed the termination was retaliation and violated his first amendment rights to free speech, court records show.

The case was dismissed in February after the case was settled.

However, in November 2021, Daniels filed a civil lawsuit against Manatee County for open records violations related to requests he made during the court case between August and September 2021, where he requested emails from various county officials associated with his lawsuit.

Daniels — who represented himself on the civil case — received thousands of pages of documents in response, but he was able to prove that some records had not been released by providing screenshots of emails between county employees that should have been included in response to his public records request, records show.

Seven months later, the county then produced 40 emails that should have been provided at the time of Daniels' request, records show.

Records Manager Deborah Scaccianoce testified that the failure stemmed from a change in the county's procedures for public records requests for public emails, according to court records.

Scaccianoce was previously allowed to search for emails within the county's system herself until "somewhat suddenly, in the fall of 2021, that duty was out-sourced to the county's IT department," according to court records.

The IT department found the 40 emails in an archive folder after she asked them to search for records once again, records show.

The court ruled in favor of Daniels and found that the county failed to respond to his public records request and that the delay was not reasonable nor justified. 

"This was not a close call," 12th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Edward Nicholas wrote in April 11 court records.

"As an aside, Ms. Scaccianoce is experienced and well-credentialed and, in this court's opinion, likely would not have missed the emails that IT inexplicably failed to locate," he also wrote.

Daniels, who sought reimbursement of his filing and service fees, was awarded $711 on the case on May 9, with the court stating that the matter will be dismissed upon payment.

Commissioners raise questions 

On Tuesday during a special meeting, Manatee County commissioners questioned Information Technology Services department head Drew Richardson and County Administrator Scott Hopes about details surrounding the case.

County Attorney Bill Clague indicated a willingness to appeal the decision.

Richardson told commissioners the IT department took over responsibilities for email searches in October 2021. He said by removing the responsibility from the records department the county now had inventory control and could trace public records requests from start to finish.

Hopes — who was hired as county administrator in April 2021 — said the changes were made to ensure that records are preserved and every public records request is logged.

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"There was a period of time when records were searched, email records, other records on the system, where there did not appear to be consistency with how records and search histories were preserved," Hopes said. "Some search histories were preserved, other search histories were not. They were deleted. So you could not readily tell what was searched for, who it was produced for, what happened to these electronic copies."