Senate Bill 1846c1

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.



    Florida Senate - 2000                           CS for SB 1846

    By the Committee on Regulated Industries and Senator Horne





    315-1833-00

  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to public records; providing an

  3         exemption from public records requirements for

  4         certain telecommunications company records;

  5         providing for future review and repeal;

  6         providing a finding of public necessity;

  7         providing an effective date.

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  9  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

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11         Section 1.  (1)  Any proprietary confidential business

12  information obtained from a telecommunications company or

13  franchised cable company by a local governmental entity for

14  the purposes of regulating the public rights-of-way is

15  confidential and exempt from the provisions of section

16  119.07(1), Florida Statutes, and Section 24 (a), Article I of

17  the State Constitution, may be used only for the purposes of

18  regulating such rights-of-way, and may not be used for any

19  other purposes, including, but not limited to, commerical or

20  competitive purposes.

21         (2)  For the purposes of this exemption, "proprietary

22  confidential business information" includes any proprietary or

23  otherwise confidential information or documentation, including

24  maps, plans, billing and payment records, trade secrets, or

25  other information relating to the provision of or facilities

26  for communications service that is intended to be and is

27  treated by the company as confidential and is not otherwise

28  publicly available to the same extent and in the same format

29  as requested by the local governmental entity. Proprietary

30  confidential business information does not include schematics

31  indicating the location of facilities for a specific site that

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 2000                           CS for SB 1846
    315-1833-00




  1  are provided in the normal course of the local governmental

  2  entity's permitting process.

  3         (3)  Nothing in this exemption expands the information

  4  or documentation that a local governmental entity may properly

  5  request under applicable law pursuant to regulation of its

  6  public rights-of-way.

  7         (4)  This section is subject to the Open Government

  8  Sunset Review Act of 1995 in accordance with section 119.15,

  9  Florida Statutes, and shall stand repealed on October 1, 2005,

10  unless reviewed and saved from repeal through reenactment by

11  the Legislature.

12         Section 2.  The Legislature finds that it is a public

13  necessity that proprietary confidential business information

14  be kept confidential when held by a local governmental entity

15  pursuant to the public rights-of-way. Disclosure of

16  proprietary confidential business information in a local

17  governmental entity's possession would adversely affect the

18  business interests of telecommunications companies and

19  franchised cable companies providing the information by

20  harming them in the marketplace and compromising the security

21  of the communications network. Further, disclosure of such

22  proprietary confidential business information would impair

23  competition in the communications industry. Thus, the public

24  and private harm in disclosing the proprietary confidential

25  business information significantly outweighs any public

26  benefit derived from disclosure, and the public's ability to

27  scrutinize and monitor agency action is not diminished by

28  nondisclosure of the proprietary confidential business

29  information.

30         Section 3.  This act shall take effect upon becoming a

31  law.

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 2000                           CS for SB 1846
    315-1833-00




  1          STATEMENT OF SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES CONTAINED IN
                       COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
  2                         Senate Bill 1846

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  4  The Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 1846 narrows the
    bill's public records exemption for information obtained by
  5  local government agencies relating to utility rights-of-way.

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