Following Friday’s questions of potential lobbyist involvement in the closed-door blocking of an SGA senate resolution for open government, Knight News continued to pursue this story in search for answers.
Knight News obtained the contract between UCF-SGA and the GrayRobinson Law Firm. In the contract, UCF-SGA agrees to pay the Law Firm $61,500 per year for “Representing the UCF-SGA’s Interests…” and “Assisting with the development and Implementation of strategic government affairs plan…” and “Assisting in building a government affairs team…”.
GrayRobinson is the law firm UCF hired to defend its position that information showing how SGA spends $20 million in public funds can be withheld from the public under a privacy law for student education records, such as a student’s SAT scores.
The contract was signed by GrayRobinson representative Frederick Leonhardt, UCF Associate Vice President of Student Development and Enrollment Services, Dr. Sharon Ekern, and UCF Student Body President Cait Zona.
In the contract, a particular section states: “If another Individual, organization, or entity, represented by GRAYROBINSON makes a request of the firm that conflicts with the interest of UCF-SGA, GRAYROBINSON shall immediately notify UCF-SGA and other parties involved of the conflict and that the interests of UCF-SGA shall take precedence over government relations clients that do not continuously predate the UCF-SGA relationship.”
Knight News is continuing to investigate this story further, stay tuned for continued breaking news on this story.
See rest of UCF SGA’s Gray-Robinson contract on the next pages.
