UPDATE MONDAY 10/5:
KnightNews.com received a call this morning stating that a copy of Will Lusk’s appeal memorandum was available. We picked up our copy, scanned and posted it below for our readers to see the document for themselves.
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ORIGINAL STORY POSTED FRIDAY 10/2
Even though SGA hasn’t yet given KnightNews.com a copy of Sen. William Lusk’s memo appealing his bribery violation, it doesn’t mean we aren’t working hard to get you that information, despite SGA’s unusually slow response to our simple public records request.
At 10:09 p.m. Thursday, KnightNews.com sent SGA Chief Justice Michael McGriskin the following e-mail:
“Please send us an e-mail of Lusk’s appeal he submitted, if you have an electronic version available.
“If you do not, can you confirm it was submitted, and any other details, and let us know what time we can come pick up a hard copy tomorrow in SGA?”
After waiting almost all day Friday and not receiving any e-mail back from Chief Justice McGriskin, KnightNews.com went to the SGA office at about 3 p.m. to ask for a quick photocopy of the requested public record — Lusk’s appeal.
Upon arriving at the SGA office, KnightNews.com was referred first to the Senate Pro Tempore’s office, and then to Chief Justice McGriskin’s office, where we asked for a copy of the record, which was already available in his office.
McGriskin told KnightNews.com we were required to fill out a one page “SGA Public Records Request Form” before he could process the request.
However, according to the Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum’s Web site, submitting a written form cannot be required by an agency before they fulfill a public records request.
“Nothing in the public records law requires that a request for public records be in writing or in person…” read a portion of the Attorney General’s Frequently Asked Questions Web site.
KnightNews.com filled out the form requesting the records, but we have still not received the request.
According to the form, SGA doesn’t even have to start reviewing our request until 3:08 p.m. Wednesday. Once the request is reviewed, SGA makes no specific promises about when it will be filled, but says it will be done “within a reasonable timeframe.”
Up until today, KnightNews.com has not been asked to fill out a form when requesting public records held by SGA.
Chief Elections Commissioner Marlee Popluder provided KnightNews.com the official memo regarding Lusk’s major violation by e-mail, and elections commissioners gave KnightNews.com a copy of senate results immediately after announcing them. It’s still not clear what caused this change in how SGA handles releasing simple records requests.
As for SGA Sen. William Lusk, he has refused KnightNews.com’s repeated attempts for comment after we broke the news about him being found in major violation for alleged bribery. Before we broke that story, Lusk seemed eager to talk to KnightNews.com, and even volunteered to appear on camera for an interview during our candidate declarations coverage.
After Lusk refused our attempts to seek his comment and to tell his side of the story by phone, KnightNews.com tracked him down on campus to try and get answers about his alleged bribery attempt involving College Republicans. He refused comment again, but here is the footage so you can see that we tried:
In addition to refusing to talk to KnightNews.com, Sen. Lusk provided a copy of his completed, time-stamped, submitted appeals memo to a competing campus news source, according to a high-ranking SGA Senate official.
KnightNews.com will continue to do everything we can to obtain the public record, which has been posted in the public domain since Thursday, Oct. 1, in an effort to keep the students informed, even if our attempts to do so apparently lead to us being ignored by certain SGA officials.
Check back for updates on this developing story. We will be posting a scanned copy of the “SGA Public Records Request Form” form as soon as possible.
