(The following editorial appeared on the Lakeland Ledger website on December 16, 2009.)
LAKELAND, Fla. — If state Sen. Paula Dockery wins the Republican gubernatorial nomination, and Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink wins the Democratic counterpart, two things are certain:
Florida’s first female governor will emerge from the November general election.
Heads likely will roll at the Florida Department of Transportation.
And well they should. Last week, during a special-call legislative session, a last-minute deal by the DOT resulted in the railroad union dropping opposition to a sweetheart deal between the state and CSX Corp.
Well before the start of the session – on Nov. 25 – Dockery requested e-mails by DOT officials related to the CSX proposal. She was given 121 e-mails, and none from DOT Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos, the linchpin of the CSX/commuter-rail negotiations.
On Dec. 4, Dockery complained to Governor’s Office of Open Government. She had wanted the e-mails for use during the special session, which started Thursday, Dec. 3, and ended with the passage of the CSX deal on Dec. 8.
8,037 missed e-mails
On Dec. 9, FDOT Deputy General Counsel Robert M. Burdick sent a letter to Dockery informing her that the FDOT had overlooked e-mails because “the search program that was run to identify records responsive [to] your request had not functioned as expected.” The letter included 8,037 e-mails missed by DOT in an initial search because “the person (originally pulling the e-mails) had made an input mistake,” according to a DOT spokesman.
Dockery also learned that some were sent using code words, like “pancake” and “french toast.” DOT Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos brushed those off as a clever way that Deputy Secretary Kevin Thibault was using to get attention on Kopelousos’ Blackberry’s e-mail subject list.
“We didn’t circumvent anything,” Kopelousos told a reporter. “It was something eye catching.”
Maybe so. But then there was the worrisome e-mail in which DOT attorney Bruce Conroy told FDOT general counsel Alexis Yarbrough to use another method “in lieu of e-mails” to discuss the state’s involvement with railroad projects.
“It is evident through the words, actions and inactions of these state officials that they are actively circumventing transparency laws,” Dockery said. “Using code words in an effort to disguise the true content of an e-mail is a violation of the public trust.”
Sink issued a similar statement on Monday afternoon: “We live in the Sunshine State, and this is not the way the people’s business should be done. Those who acted this way should be held accountable, which is why if anyone at the Department of Transportation was involved in this activity, including Secretary Kopelousos, they should immediately resign.”
This isn’t new to the plan to pay $650 million to CSX to buy – but still share – railroad tracks in the Orlando area to establish a commuter rail system. The deal was hatched in secrecy and cloaked with hidden budget items since it was first announced during the Jeb Bush administration.
Apparently it keeps on keeping on: Now Gov. Charlie Crist’s administration has egg on its face. Along with bacon and grits as well.