Florida Senate - 2017 COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
Bill No. CS for SB 210
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LEGISLATIVE ACTION
Senate . House
Comm: RCS .
03/06/2017 .
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The Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability
(Passidomo) recommended the following:
1 Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
2
3 Delete everything after the enacting clause
4 and insert:
5 Section 1. Section 744.21031, Florida Statutes, is created
6 to read:
7 744.21031 Public records exemption.—The home addresses,
8 telephone numbers, dates of birth, places of employment, and
9 photographs of current or former public guardians; the names,
10 home addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and places of
11 employment of the spouses and children of such persons; and the
12 names and locations of schools and day care facilities attended
13 by the children of such persons are exempt from s. 119.07(1) and
14 s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution. The exemption in
15 this section applies to information held by an agency before,
16 on, or after the effective date of the exemption. This section
17 is subject to the Open Government Sunset Review Act in
18 accordance with s. 119.15 and shall stand repealed on October 2,
19 2022, unless reviewed and saved from repeal through reenactment
20 by the Legislature.
21 Section 2. (1) The Legislature finds that it is a public
22 necessity that the following identifying and location
23 information be exempt from s. 119.07(1), Florida Statutes, and
24 s. 24(a), Article I of the State Constitution:
25 (a) The home addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth,
26 places of employment, and photographs of current or former
27 public guardians;
28 (b) The names, home addresses, telephone numbers, dates of
29 birth, and places of employment of spouses and children of such
30 guardians; and
31 (c) The names and locations of schools and day care
32 facilities attended by the children of such guardians.
33 (2) The Legislature finds that the release of such
34 identifying and location information might place current or
35 former public guardians and their family members in danger of
36 physical and emotional harm from disgruntled individuals who
37 react inappropriately to actions taken by the public guardians.
38 Public guardians provide a valuable service to the community by
39 helping some of the state’s most vulnerable residents who lack
40 the physical or mental capacity to take care of most aspects of
41 their own personal affairs. Public guardians help those who lack
42 a willing and qualified family member or friend and do not have
43 the income or assets to pay a professional guardian.
44 (3) Despite the value of this service, however, some
45 persons, including a public guardian’s own wards, become
46 disgruntled with the assistance provided or the decisions a
47 public guardian makes, which result in a guardian or the
48 guardian’s family members becoming potential targets for an act
49 of revenge. In one instance, a ward became angry that his public
50 guardian had taken him to the hospital for a psychological
51 evaluation. Thereafter, the ward used public records to locate
52 his public guardian’s home. The ward proceeded to call law
53 enforcement and requested officers to go to the public
54 guardian’s home after the ward falsely stated that the public
55 guardian was suicidal in an effort to get her involuntarily
56 committed under the Baker Act. The ward continued to make death
57 threats against this public guardian in the weeks following this
58 incident. Other wards have harassed their public guardians with
59 threats of incarceration, violence, and death through voicemail
60 messages and social media. Wards have also left voicemail
61 messages threating to kill themselves and others, as well as the
62 public guardian. In the course of their duties, public guardians
63 have also been subject to being physically assaulted.
64 (4) The risk continues after a public guardian concludes
65 his or her service because a disgruntled individual may wait to
66 commit an act of revenge until the guardian concludes his or her
67 service. The harm that may result from the release of a public
68 guardian’s personal identifying and location information
69 outweighs any public benefit that may be derived from the
70 disclosure of the information.
71 Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2017.
72
73 ================= T I T L E A M E N D M E N T ================
74 And the title is amended as follows:
75 Delete everything before the enacting clause
76 and insert:
77 A bill to be entitled
78 An act relating to public records; creating s.
79 744.21031, F.S.; providing an exemption from public
80 records requirements for certain identifying and
81 location information of current or former public
82 guardians and the spouses and children thereof;
83 providing for retroactive application; providing for
84 future legislative review and repeal of the exemption;
85 providing a statement of public necessity; providing
86 an effective date.