Apparently my letter to the Florida Today and my email regarding the advance payment of $100K to RoseWare against a contingency based cost savings contract struck a nerve with our Clerk of Courts, Mitch Needelman. He posted the following response to FaceBook yesterday in which he actually acknowledges his failure to provide the public records I requested in May (click to enlarge):

Now I'm not sure what my expunged arrest from 16 years ago has to do with the Clerk doling out millions in no bid contracts to companies working with his former lobbyist partner, Matt Dupree, has to do with anything, but on May 29th I made the following request of every government office in Brevard County. Every one except for the Clerk's office responded within 48 hours:

"I am requesting a copy of all correspondence, electronic or otherwise, including any ITNs or RFPs that reference any entity by the name of Blueware and/or Roseware and/or Bestbond, from January 1st of this year or after, in the name of Brevard County and/or any of its Charter Officers. Furthermore, I am requesting the record of any and all payments to any entity by the name of Blueware and/or Roseware and/or Bestbond made since January 1st of this year by Brevard County and/or any of its Charter Officers. I would like the amount, fund being used for payment, and the date and purpose of the payment."

The only thing I have received to date is this letter dated June 8, 2012. I opted not to pat the $1.65 for the ITN because I was able to obtain it from a disgruntled vendor at no cost during the 11 days it took the Clerk to reply to my request (!).

In the above response Needelman states I "have gotten everything wrong", and that "it is clear he doesn't even have all of the contracts, much less all of the facts." I take this latter statement as confirmation he knows his office hasn't fulfilled my very simple FS119 request that all other agencies in the county processed in 48 hours. I suspect this statement and the personal attacks levied against me will come in very handy at the upcoming FS 119 hearing.

One of my favorite quotes of all time is this classic from Dirty Harry: "A man's got to know his limitations." Our Clerk of Courts seems to have forgotten that as the legal custodian of the official records of Brevard, providing said records to taxpayers upon request is REQUIRED, not optional. I believe he will be reminded of his limitations by a judge in very short order.

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