Visit to the Hillsborough Clerk Court

On Tuesday February 26^th, my classmates and I went to the Hillsborough County Clerk of the Circuit Court located in Downtown, Tampa. We were guided by Dana Caranante, director of Circuit Civil, and Samantha Grahn, manager of the child support department. They both were very helpful, and even offered their phone numbers so we can contact them in case we need help.

The Clerk’s Office is a county-run organization; this means it only handles information of Hillsborough County. Grahn showed us the Hillsborough County Clerk of the Circuit Court website www.hillsclerk.com. Pat Frank is the Clerk of the Circuit Court/Comptroller for Hillsborough County. For more information about Frank follow this link: http://www.hillsclerk.com/publicweb/meet_pat_frank.aspx. You can also check out her blog http://www.hillsclerk.com/publicweb/Blog.aspx.

Caranante and Grahn went over the duties of the Clerk of the Circuit Court/Comptroller. The Clerk of the Circuit Court is the official record keeper of the County courts. There are many duties from processing all civil and criminal cases to assisting victims of abuse through the Domestic Violence Program. For a complete list of duties follow this link: http://www.hillsclerk.com/publicweb/duties.aspx. The Clerk is responsible for safekeeping and investing over $1.8 billion in annually county collections as well as issuing marriage licenses, performing marriage ceremonies, etc.

Caranante said very clearly that all records filed with the Clerk are available for public inspection, with the exception of those records specifically exempt by judicial order or statute such as juvenile, adoption, and mental health records. I thought it was interesting the fact that they charge $1 per page for court documents as opposed to other agencies who charge $0.15. However, they do charge 15 cents a page for administrative documents. This link contains a complete list of fees and fines http://www.hillsclerk.com/publicweb/General_Services_Fees.aspx.

Grahn gave us important tips when looking for records online. She said the Clerk’s database is a great resource for court records: http://publicrecord.hillsclerk.com/oridev/criminal_pack.doc?pcSearchMode=NS&pnPidm=308665&pcCaseId=99-CF-006379&pnCnt=1&pcCourtType=%. In this database you can find all the information about a case from the people who were present at the court to the party’s sentence and date of birth. I think it is important to know how to read these reports, and Grahn did a good job explaining the different tabs of the database. For example, she told us that the first two numbers of the case number is the year when the case was filed. If the case is 99-CF-006379, the year would be 1999.

It is important to know that as of April 1^st anytime attorneys want to file an official document, they have to submit it electronically. This process is called E-Filing. “We receive over 4,000 pieces of paper a day,” said Caranante. For more information about E-Filing click the link: http://www.hillsclerk.com/publicweb/efiling.aspx.

Here are few recommendations if you are planning to go the Hillsborough County Clerk of the Circuit Court. Don’t go on a Friday because people don’t like to stay working late right before their weekend, nor Monday because usually the jury duty meets in the morning, and it’s a busy day. Avoid wearing jeans or short, dress properly. Also, if you park in the street know that there is a 2-hour limit or just park in a garage nearby. Finally, don’t waste your time trying to look for the location of the building or department you are looking for. Because of security reasons you must go through the main entrance first, and then you will be directed to the specific department.

At the end, Caranante said juvenile hearings are open to the public. So, I am wondering, why would the juvenile hearings be open to the public if the records are not? I don’t know what you think about this, but to me this does not make any sense!

Anyways, I thought this visit was very helpful and a great learning experience. Next time I go to the Hillsborough County Clerk of the Circuit Court I know where to park, where to enter, and who to call. Here is a picture from Google Maps of the Court.

Visit to the Hillsborough County Jail

This past Tuesday, February 19^th, I went to the Hillsborough County Jail. Fortunately, it was for a class tour and not to stay there or visit anyone I knew. We met again with Cristal Bermudez, who works in the office of public information at the Sheriff’s office. The tour was guided by Major A. Michael Perotti. He is the Commander of the Support Services Division in the Department of Detention Services for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. To learn more about Major Perotti follow this link http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/getdoc/8f4a412d-f3ff-4a5c-be39-f6320dfafd54/MIchael-Perotti.aspx

Major Perotti was joined by Lt. B. Harrell and Capt. Cole. We started the tour in the Incident Command Center. We were shown different weapons and tools inmates create. Everything from a handgun made of paper to strong thick ropes made from bed sheets or even garbage bags. The next room we went to was the Operation Status Center (OSC). This is the camera room or as Cpt. Cole calls it “the brain of the facility.” This room has over 300 cameras operating and 4 massive control operators. Camera operators watch and have control of who enters and leaves the facility and/or room.

This was my first and only time inside a jail. I must admit a lot of things aren’t as I thought they were. The units and cells are in very good condition. Mayor Perotti mentioned they spend $2 million every year in health/medical care for inmates. And inmates have no real contact visits. Instead, they may have video visitation or a face to face window visit. For more information about video visitation check out this link: http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/Articles/Articles/Video-Visitation-Center.aspx

Then we went to two different housing units. Both units are very different from each other:

Housing Unit Two

–        Unit for inmates who are not so dangerous;

–        Inmates are allowed to be outside their cell and socialize, play outside, shower when they want, etc.

–        Only one deputy in charge of all the inmates in the housing; this means only one person has to control around 70 inmates at the same time. That is crazy!

Housing Unit One

–        Also called confinement housing because inmates who are very dangerous come here;

–        There are fences over the stairs so no one commits suicide

–        Inmates are not allowed to leave their cell unless they are handcuffed, and only one at a time;

–        The unit is run by three deputies.

Later, we went to the Central Booking room. This is the only place where male and female inmates are in the same room together. Here, many inmates were waiting to check-in, and It was really hard not to notice the crazy look of some inmates. Anyways, in this room inmates go through a check-in process from receiving medical attention to providing personal information until they are classified and finally allowed to make their one free call. What caught my attention was that inmates were wearing uniforms with different colors. The ones in orange are from the county jail, and it is only for inmates sentenced less than one year and one day. The ones wearing blue uniforms are inmates from the state prison sentenced for more than one year and one day. And the ones wearing orange with blue are trustees. Trustees are inmates who work there, and in exchange they get credit for their sentence.

Finally, we went to the Records and Classification office. Major Perotti referred to this office as being a “fluent” environment. It just means that a lot of different and unexpected things happen. For example, they don’t know how many inmates will check-in every day, what information they might have, etc. This office documents everything about inmates. Perotti told us all jail reports and inmate files are part of public records. Of course, there is information that may not be public if it violates the privacy rights of an inmate or employee. Perotti mentioned the Criminal Report Affidavit (CRA) which is written by the arresting officer is a valuable public record because it has lots of information about the inmates’ behavior, housing, etc. Another popular public record is the booking video. This record is mostly used in high profile cases, where the inmate is in the booking room, and it shows the first moments of the person inside the jail.

Perotti said it was important to have a good relationship with the media. He said it was a give-and-take situation. They both depend on each other, and therefore just as he gives media information, he expects the media to follow his guidelines.

For more information regarding the Hillsborough County Jail visit the website: http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/getdoc/c66906f8-c4ff-4695-a6b5-7d97c8f689a1/Home.aspx

Visit to the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office

On Tuesday February 12th, we went to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office located in Ybor City, Tampa. Cristal Bermudez talked to us about her job at the Sheriff’s office. She works in the office of public information. Basically, she is the person who provides public records to anyone looking for criminal, arrest warrants, search warrants, and all kinds of related records from DUI to murder cases. She provided us with sample records such as Standard Operating Procedure, Criminal Report Affidavit/Notice to Appear, Arrest Warrant, Affidavit for Search Warrant, General Offense Hardcopy, Arrest Inquiry, and News Releases.

Bermudez talked to us about public records. Although they charge the same amount per record as every other office, they kind of have different policies when it comes to the process of requesting public records. First, even though the law says you are not required to identify yourself, you do need to show an id and sign in order to get the public records from this office. Second, any person is only allowed to request a maximum of three records at the window. Third, and the most shocking one, you are not allowed to inspect the records. This means you will have to pay for all the copies of the records you are interested in, instead of choosing which pages you actually need a copy of. This fact surprised all of us. She said the reason is because all their records are online, and they have to be printed for the person to see them for a charge of $0.15 per page. So, if you request a long case with a thousand pages, you will be required a money deposit when requesting the record.

Bermudez mentioned the importance of a good relationship between her and the media. She said they both depend on each other. She told us one time reporters from different TV channels got confidential reports by mistake. And thanks to the good relationship they have she gave them the money back for the wrong copies, and the TV channels returned the confidential report. This is just an example of how easy it is to make a mistake, and therefore it is important to build strong relationships.

We then went to the Communication Center. Elliot Lopez, who is a dispatcher, taught us some of the history of the county of Florida and the Communication Center. I thought it was interesting that in order to work for them you need to be trained for six months. It does make sense though, because you really need to be prepared for emergency calls and stressful situations. Lopez also said 91% are non-emergency calls. There are many reasons why people call 911, but most of the time people don’t know the direct phone number of the police, or they called by mistake.
Because this job is very stressful, they always need more people to work there. Lopez said sometimes they receive so many 911 calls there are not enough employees to answer all the calls. When this happens, 911 calls are transferred to the Tampa Police Department. I did feel concerned that there are not enough people who are willing to do this job that is so needed. If I don’t find a future as a journalist, I wouldn’t mind being a dispatcher at the 911 center. The salaries range from $13 to $14 and you can get extra money if you speak Spanish (that’s a plus for me).

Finally, we went into the room where all the dispatchers were receiving 911 calls. We couldn’t be loud because they could have been in the middle of an emergency call. Lopez showed us the desks and how the system works. Dispatchers have an option that allows them to communicate with the hearing impaired or deaf. I thought that was really cool.

Overall, I really enjoyed this trip. I learned a lot and had fun!
http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/

Guest Speaker: Preston Trigg

Our guest, Preston Trigg, is the director of administration and special projects at the Hillsborough County Tax Collector. He is very knowledgeable in public records as he worked for the Tampa Tribune and gained valuable experience. http://www.hillstax.org/AboutUs/Senior%20Staff/trigg_profile.htm

He explained there are different types of taxes: income taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes. He exclusively works with property taxes. This type refers to taxes people pay when buying a property like a house or a condo. These taxes are based on the value of the property (the more expensive the property, the more you will have to pay).

Hillsborough County Tax Collector collects all the money from the people, about $2 billion, and they distribute the money to public companies/organizations like the public library, port, buses, etc. This office is also responsible for the handling of driver’s licenses. I was actually there this past Friday getting a new driver’s license. Too bad I didn’t know him then, he could have probably helped me getting my driver’s license right away instead of having to wait two weeks or so.

Trigg did a good job on highlighting the importance of public records. He said it is important to know if running officials are paying their property taxes because this information will show if they paid on time, and it demonstrates how responsible and good of a citizen they are.

There are all kinds of records available to the public. Some of the records Trigg mentioned are property tax (houses, properties), business tax (a surf shop), and motor vehicle records. He explained that many motor vehicle records have become private because of personal information. For example, you can know if a person has a ticket, but not where the person lives.

http://www.hillstax.org is the website Trigg showed us and where anyone can find information. There is a link for property taxes and for property appraiser. This database includes information such as when the property was built, what the property is made of, a photo of the property (Google Earth), and any arrangements made to the property like adding a pool to your house. https://www.hcpafl.org/CamaDisplay.aspx?OutputMode=Display&SearchType=RealEstat/CamaDisplay.aspx

Trigger said what it’s really important is for us to get as much information as we can of the people we are interested in or “covering.” You can find relevant information about anyone, even the person you are dating or getting married with. He mentioned one good record to look at is financial disclosure, a form all public officials have to fill out with their investments, expenses, gifts, etc.
Trigger said something really interesting. He said Florida is different from other states because in Florida all the records are public unless the legislature makes them exempt. As opposed to the other states where you can’t see the records unless the legislature specifies you can.

I don’t want to go further into detail with the entire lecture he gave, but he mentioned important details about public records. Anyone can request them, without giving a name or reason. Public records costs vary from 15 cents to whatever amount they consider fair. They can be videos, photos, emails, calls, etc. And there are some exemptions such as test scores, marketing agreements, records involving children, autopsy photos, among others. He also recommended us to ask for records in writing to help clarify any confusion.

When asked how to access out of state public records, he said it’s best to call a local newspaper reporter and ask for help. Trigg told us not to worry if we don’t know where to find a specific public record. Just as everything else in life, we will learn more about public records as time passes. I felt relieved because I’m new to public records, and they seem to be a big thing, and I felt frustrated that I don’t even know where to find them.

Trigg told us about his working experiences. One of them was when he was a reporter at the Tampa Tribune, and he was covering a HART line (bus) story. He discovered the head of the bus agency, Bob Clifford, was using the agency’s credit card for personal use like gas charges for his boat, food, and non-business trips. This story is relevant to all of us because that money he spent is OUR MONEY. He told us to be careful when a public official goes to Hawaii or Las Vegas for “business,” because public officials should never be found there. He ended this story with my favorite quote: “The stupid stuff people do is amazing!”

Finally, he mentioned the Clerk of the Circuit Court contains the official records index, with information of where to find public records. Here you can find information of paid mortgages, sold and bought houses, whenever you get sued, marriage certificates, etc. http://www.hillsclerk.com/publicweb/home.aspx

After this long summary report of his visit to our class, I was left with an important message. IT IS ALL ABOUT WHO YOU KNOW. He mentioned he became the director of administration because he knew the person in charge, his boss, and so, he was asked to work at the Hillsborough County Tax Collector. I believe a journalist, a reporter, an anchor, anyone in the mass communications field will get wherever they want to if they know the right person. So, all I can say is network and spend time meeting people.