Cheryl McCoy Lecture

The Cheryl McCoy discussion was beneficial to me in many ways, specifically in the methods used to find public records. The public affairs course guide and the web sites mentioned in the lecture will be enormous tools in getting public information for class assignments, as well as papers and assignments I may have to write in other school courses. It will also be extremely helpful in the work I do for my job.
The lecture was helpful concerning what web sites are best to visit when looking for a specific public record. Knowing this information is going to point me in the right direction and help me strain out what and what not is necessary. McCoy reiterated that determining what department handles what information is very important because it allows people to focus on certain web sites rather than searching broadly, hoping to find the information needed to complete a story or assignment.
Another point McCoy made that I thought was useful was how lucky we (students) are that Florida provides so many open public records…something other states don’t have the luxury of. Florida opens up nearly all records to everyone, except student records, which are always sealed, and social security numbers, which are only available to reporters for valid investigations. McCoy further explained that a newspaper story is not a public record. Instead, it is a secondary source. This surprised me a little because I thought that since newspapers are open for everyone to read, it would be called a public record.
Of the sites McCoy brought to my attention, the ones I will end up frequenting to the most will be government in the sunshine at myfloridasunshine.com, the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County web sites, and the Joe Adams home page called idiganswers.com. The idiganswers.com web site is great because it provides links to other helpful sites such as the Florida Sunshine Review, Florida Government sites, and Florida newspapers.

Tim Nickens Discussion

Before this public affairs course, I never realized how much information could be obtained from public records. I was also unaware that tape recordings, emails, and messages on internet sites such as Facebook could be attained through public records. Knowing this information has made me cautious as to what I put on the Internet.
Probably the most interesting and pertintent part I learned from Nickens' discussion was that the most a citizen can be charged for a public record is 15 cents per page copy. Equally, I was intrigued to learn a person asking for a public record is not required to state who they are or why they want the public record documents they are asking for. It was especially fascinating learning it was plausible for me, a student, to enter USF President Judy Genshaft's office, and get her emails and schedule for the week without questions.
I found the 15 cents per page information helpful because I was recently in a dispute with a company who wanted to charge me as much as one dollar per page copy for public record documents. I was under the impression I didn't have to pay the amount, but I had no way to back up my theory. Now I have something to prove I should not be overcharged.
The topic Nickens spoke about most was in relation to how public records are vital because they keep people informed about how and what elected officials are doing with their time and money. The example Nickens gave was a former Florida house speaker who was caught, through the use of public records, using taxpayer's money to build a airplane hanger for a friend's private jet. Nickens' reporters at the St. Petersburg Times broke this story, showing how public records can be used to take down even the most powerful people.