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City Clerk, Miami Beach
1700 Convention Center Drive
Miami Beach, FL 33139
Frank Del Vecchio ~ C ~
301 Ocean Drive, Apz 604 ~ ~
Miami Beach, FL 33139
Ted 305-672-2486 Q G~~
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SUBJ: Public Records Request for Building Department Records ' `
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Pursuant to Sec. 119.07(1)(a), Florida Statutes,' I make the following public records
requests:
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1. A copy of the current grievance filed by the Communications Workers of America
Loca13178 on behalf of nine building inspectors, referred to in the article on the
Miami Beach building department, page 16, April 10, 2048 edition of the
SunPos .2
2. Identity of the contractors and address and ownership information in the city's
records for each of the projects subject to the grievance referred to in paragraph 1,
above.
3. Information to the extent available in the city's records, of overtime pay paid to
employees of the building department over the past thirty six month period, by
employee and the amount of overtime paid to each employee who has been the
recipient of overtime pay.
4. Information to the extent available of regular, non-overtime pay, paid to
employees of the building department over the same thirty-six month period for
which overtime pay information requested in paragraph 3, above, is tabulated.
5. Information on the projects approved for "expedited reviews" that were referred to
in the SunPost article cited in paragraph 1, above.3 The information should
include the number of the project, the applicant's identity, the project's name and
address, and the building department employee who authorized the expedited
review. Also requested is the date of project application, the date the expedited
review was requested, the date the expedited review was authorized, the date the
expedited review was completed, and the building department employee who
approved the application upon the completion of the expedited review. In
addition, please provide a listing of the officials who were authorized to authorize
expedited reviews and the official who granted this authorization.
Please advise me of the Research Request number assigned to this request, and the
department and individual to whom the research request is assigned and the date of the
assignment.
S' rely,
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Frank Del Vecc o
Attached: Footnotes
1Florida Statutes, Chapter, 119. Public Records.
119.01 General state policy on public records.--
(1) It is the policy of this state that all state, county, and municipal records are open for
personal inspection and copying by any person. Providing access to public records is a
duty of each agency.
(2)(a) Automation of public records must not erode the right of access to those records.
As each agency increases its use of and dependence on electronic recordkeeping, each
agency must provide reasonable public access to records electronically maintained and
must ensure that exempt or confidential records are not disclosed except as otherwise
permitted by law.
***
119.07 Inspection and copying of records; photographing public records; fees;
exemptions.-
(1)(a) Every person who has custody of a public record shall permit the record to be
inspected and copied by any person desiring to do so, at any reasonable time, under
reasonable conditions, and under supervision. by the custodian of the public records.
(b) A custodian of public records or a person having custody of public records may
designate another officer or employee of the agency to permit the inspection and copying
of public records, but must disclose the identity of the designee to the person requesting to
inspect or copy public records.
(c) A custodian of public records and his or her designee must acknowledge requests to
inspect or copy records promptly and respond to such requests in good faith. A good faith
response includes making reasonable efforts to determine from other officers or
employees within the agency whether such a record exists and, if so, the location at which
the record can be accessed.
***
2SunPost, News. April 10, 2008
Miami Beach
"Ch, Ch, Ch, Changes?
"Building Department Director Tom. Velazquez has used a heavy hand to implement
changes in his department."
By Ben Torter
***
"Overtime pay is the subject of a current grievance filed by the Communications Workers
of America Loca13178 on behalf of nine building inspectors."
***
"According to Velazquez, the overtime was being used as a built-in bribery technique. He
explained that inspectors would finish all but maybe five minutes of an inspection and
then tell a contractor the work couldn't be finished unless the contractor requested the
inspector stay overtime. Then they'd stay five minutes and leave."
" `If I'm an inspector without much ethics, I'll find a way to turn down your inspection,
but I'll be back at 4 o'clock if you call and I'll get paid four hours overtime," Velazquez
said, adding that there were inspectors making an extra $3,000 per two-week pay period
this way.' "
3"Another departmental change Velazquez cites is that supervisors now track plans, have
them reviewed by more than one employee and approve them for expedited reviews. In
the past, these processes were more like afree-for-all. Ratner, Villarreal and Partovi were
all supervisors."