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Century Council Member Gets Nothing From Records Request Nine Months Ago
September 9, 2009
Nine months after a public records request made by a council member, the Town of Century has not provided him any documents. The documents related to the now defunct Helicopter Technology and other town financial business were never provided, according to the mayor, because he thought the matter was settled.
“The town may be in trouble,” Century Mayor Freddie McCall told his council Tuesday night about the open records request from Councilman Henry Hawkins.
Hawkins made a formal written public records request on December 10, 2008. In his request, Hawkins requested that the documents be made available to him within 14 days. McCall said he was told by the town’s attorney on December 20 that Hawkins no longer wanted the records as requested.
“I thought it was a dead issue,” McCall said Tuesday night. “Then I get a rumor this week that it is not agreeable.”
In his December letter addressed to McCall, Hawkins requested a certified copy of all documents related to Georges Van Nevel, Helicopter Technologies, Inc., and Van Nevel Helicopters, including financial journals; all correspondence and documents between the parties, including emails; and copies of all legal pleadings and briefs between the town and its legal counsel.
Hawkins also requested certified copies of records related to commercial and personal loan notes and mortgages held by the Town of Century and the lender and complete payment records on each.
“It may cost thousands and thousands of dollars to supply this information,” McCall told the council, because of hourly fees that might be charged by the town’s attorney and accountant.
“I will pay any reasonable fee to cover the cost of providing the requested documentation,” Hawkins wrote in his December letter. “…I will pickup and remit for these copies.”
“He can make a decision if he would like to pay for it,” Council President Ann Brooks said of the potentially expensive public records request.
“We cannot make decisions at this table without all of the facts,” Hawkins said. “If we had been told the truth years ago about Helicopter Technology, we would not be in the mess we’re in right now.”
The Town of Century held the mortgage on the helicopter company’s building in the town’s industrial park. After the company defaulted, the town won a foreclosure suit against the company, and the town just recently purchased the building for $100 at a foreclosure auction.
“The 14 days has been over…months ago,” Hawkins told his fellow council members Tuesday night. “Y’all can do what you want to do, and I am going to do what I have to do.”
The council, with Hawkins abstaining, voted not to provide him a copy of the requested records without first providing him with an estimate of the monetary charges involved.
Click here to read the December 10, 2008, public records request from Henry Hawkins (pdf).
Florida’s public records laws allows, in general, for public records to be viewed free of charge, but the law does allow a fee for copies. Copies are generally 15 cents for one-sided documents or 20 cents for double-sided pages. Certified copies are $1 per copy under the law. Government agencies are also permitted to charge fees as outline in Florida statutes for excessive clerical and other staff time involved in providing public records. There are other fees permitted by Florida law as well. (Read about the fees allowed by clicking here.)
Pictured top: A public records request from Henry Hawkins was presented to the Century Town Council Tuesday night. Pictured (L-R) Nadine McCaw, Ann Brooks, Sharon Scott, Hawkins and Gary Riley. Pictured inset: Hawkins reads his request out load as Gary Riley listens. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
21 Responses to “Century Council Member Gets Nothing From Records Request Nine Months Ago”
IF YOU EVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO SIT DOWN AND TALK WITH REV. HAWKINS, ONE WOULD DISCOVER THE MAN IS VERY INTELLENGENT AND HAS GREAT IDEAS. POLITICAL BULLIES STAND IN HIS WAY WITH THE GOOD OL’ BOY PROGRAM. UNTILL CERTAIN PEOPLE ARE GONE CENTURY WILL NEVER CHANGE, IT HAS BEEN THIS WAY FOR YEARS AND YEARS AND ONE MAN CANNOT CHANGE IT ALONE, ESPECIALLY WITH EVERYONE ELSE NOT PUTTING IN ANY EFFORT.
I THINK IF THESE DOCUMENTS SURFACE IT WILL TELL THE TRUE STORY OF WHY THIS WENT ON SO LONG AND COST CENTURY $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
IT WAS ALL A VERY SHADY DEAL AND NAMES NEED TO BE PUT OUT. IT WILL BE WORTH THE MONEY AND THE HASSEL BECAUSE WITH THE SAME PEOPLE IN OFFICE IT WILL CONTINUE TO HAPPEN. IT WILL COST UP FRONT BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY IT WILL ALL BE WORTH IT.
THANKS AGAIN HENRY FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK.
THIS ABOUT GEORGES VAN NEVEL AN THE HELICOPTER TECHNOLOGY DID NOT START WITH MAYOR FREDDIE MCCALL.WE HAVE TO REACH FAR BACK TO THE GOOD OL BOYS FORMER MAYOR BENNY BARNES,FORMER MAYOR EVELYN HAMMOND.THEY HAD SHOTS IN THE SHELL BEFORE MAYOR FREDDIE EVER GOT THE GUN……AND FOR ALL OF YOU UNSTABLE CREATURES THAT HAS SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT REV.HAWKINS,YALL BETTER BE VERY CAREFULL THE WAY YOU TALK ABOUT A MAN OF GOD!!!!!THEY SHOULD HAVE GIVING HIM HIS IMFORMATION WHEN HE ASKED FOR IT…SO NOW..THE TOWN OF CENTURY HAS WRITTEN A CHECK ITS BEHIND CAN NOT CASH:) HAHAHAHAHA…WAY TO GO REV.HAWKINS:)
For people who are interest in knowing the truth, lets get together and help Henry with the cost of getting these documents. The truth needs to come out and the mayor is saying that it will cost too much to produce these documents. There are certain people who just simply dont want the public to view the docs because I think people will lose there jobs over this mess.
SOMEONE needs to clean house in century florida. Its always the same ol’ crap with the same ol’ people. Century fl is a political circus and Henery Hawkins is the only person who has the back bone to fix any of the problems, But the crooks make it hard for Henry. Keep up the Good work Henry and dont back down from these guys. The Van Nevel deal was a Good ol’ boy deal that cause a big mess and the truth needs to come out. I am willing to help you pay to get these docs. I want to know the truth as well.
William has got to have cronies. He is from somewhere ,isnt he? I’d like to think that I have cronies….just not from century.
I don’t think William has cronies. He’s not even from Century.
REGARDING:
“sorry I struck a cord, you accomplished what you and the cronies wanted by…”
Must be nice to have cronies or to be a crony or whatever.
Let us consider the most important news he didn’t report:
The sun came up. It would be fairly dark if that didn’t happen and it did, yet he failed to report it. had he done so, who would have read the report? We expect the sun to come up.
The world was still there. Also a good thing, yet unreported because we would expect it to be there. In fact, if it weren’t there, nobody would read that one either because they wouldn’t be there either.
And the other good news unreported is that I looked up cronies and crony because of you. Did you know it just meant friends of long time? It shares the origin with chronometer and chronicle.
As stated it sounds like you think there is a group of old friends who wish to tear down the area by reporting only bad things and not reporting good things. Please tell me if it is a vast right wing conspiracy, a vast left wing conspiracy or a vast islamic terrorist conspiracy.
We need to know these things so we know whom to fear.
cro·ny [krṓnee] (plural cro·nies) n
close friend: a close friend, especially one of long standing
[Mid-17th century.
Sad,
Why don’t you crawl back under a rock where you came from! You will not find another media source that prints as much positive information on any of the towns as this one. Thanks William for all your hard work, don’t let those who do not have an understanding get you down! You the man!
Sad…I’m surprised that they had a meeting. The last meetings lasted only a few minutes. Freddie, “awlright, is everybody here?” Council ” we’re here” Freddie ” awlright, you can go home”. Thus is the extent of an average Century meeting.
William, sorry I struck a cord, you accomplished what you and the cronies wanted by selecting the IMPORTANT stuff to print FIRST. No need to print the positive things now. Based on your opinion, the majority of people want this kind of news. I hope and pray that you are wrong about that. I wish you nothing but success.
If it turned out that the records requested as requested cost let us say $300,000, it is possible Mr Hawkins would not want them that badly.
If they cost $3,000, he might not really want them that badly.
If they cost thirty cents total, I would want them even though I have no need for such things.
If the lawyer did indeed report that the records were no longer desired, there should be a written note saying so.
Verbal contracts aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. I assume the same applies to verbal cancellations. Could be wrong, though.
I have comment about the things that were said about Reverend Hawkins. None of you other City Council Members have done nothing for the young adults who go to the community center to get help for getting their ged. None of you care and that is the truth. So stop trying to bring down a man like Reverend Hwakins who cares for the community and his students. And get off your lazy behinds and start asking how you can help the citizens of Century more. If none of you can do your job the way your suppose to and start asking questions when things go wrong. Then maybe being a councilmemeber isn’t for you. Because the only thing the rest of you council members care about is making yourselves look good. Yall call yourselves council members then why don’t you handle your business like a council member should.
“Sad” wrote: “It is also very sad that true journalism died years ago. There were a lot of good things that took place at the Council meeting last night; none of the positive action appeared in the news”
Some of those ‘good things’ will appear in stories on Thursday morning. True journalism requires choosing the story that is believed to be the most important or interesting to the most people. This story was certainly it. It’s our job to report the good and the bad.
We very often spread stories from the Century council out over a few days, starting the biggest story first.
Fact is — and true journalism is — we report what happens. I don’t remember “Sad” complaining anytime we’ve ran a positive story about Century. I suppose it is bad journalism if we make you, “Sad”, look bad, but good journalism if we make you look good.
This is another sad day for the citizens of Century and surrounding communities. Yes, everyone in this area is affected by the negative publicity caused by these pompous idiots. It is also very sad that true journalism died years ago. There were a lot of good things that took place at the Council meeting last night; none of the positive action appeared in the news. Henery, as spelled by an intelligent commenter who knows all about good buddy relationships; has absolutely no interest in the records he and his cronies have requested. They wouldn’t know what they were reading if they had every page. He and his cronies agenda is to destroy any opportunity for this community to grow and prosper. What’s more sad is we are allowing them to do this. It is time to impeach him, and get someone to serve on the Council who cares about the Citizens of Century and surrounding communities.
This letter sounds like it was written by a person smarter than the average Joe as Councilman Hawkins. Sounds like Lawyer jargon to me and there must be someone with deep pockets backing all this. Mmmmm I wonder what’s the concern to a single citizen for all this comotion at this late date. What is done is done and the town still ownes the property. It’s not the first nor the last time the Town will make a bad business deal with a Company wanting to settle in Century. Looking at the positive–for a long time this Company paid out a lot of money to employees. So what if he went bust that’s his bad luck. It’s a sign of the Times you know. Lets move on and quit digging up bones……………………
“Maybe he has a good attorney!”
That letter was not written by an attorney. There are too many mistakes and mis-wordings. An attorney that had read the Sunshine manual would have worded things much better.
It was written by someone that was pretending to be smart, tossing in phrases to sound impressive.
(Don’t get me wrong — Mr. Hawkins is a smart man. He would have just written a better letter without pretending to be so smart.)
Sometimes when a person pretends to be smart, their ignorance shows.
“7. This will get more interesting. Politics are always dirty in Century. ”
Dirty in deed when you have Henry Hawkins (sombody’s puppet).
“he was told by the town’s attorney on December 20 that Hawkins no longer wanted the records as requested.”
If the lawyer received a cancellation of request over the phone (which I am sure that is what Mr. Somebody…. Um….I mean Hawkins did) He should have known when Hawkins is involved (or anyone else) WRITING get the cancellation of request in WRITING…… Hawkins from what I have seen at the many meetings I have attended, is a power bully and cares nothing for the town, only his own personal agenda.
Maybe he has a good attorney!
Who do you think wrote the letter In the Know? There are not that many people in Century who would write a letter like that.
Looks we are going to find out a few things:
1. Lots of the records that are requested do not exist.
2. Henry will get some records produced and will be told he has them all. He needs to know that whatever they give him, there are more that they are hiding. Those are the good ones. Gov’t always works this way.
3. The whole Van Nevel thing was a sham anyway. Van Nevel and the Mayor were buddy-buddy. Buddies make for bad business deals, in general.
4. If you are the mayor or on the council and the number 595-4200 shows up on your caller ID, you better answer it.
5. Henry is not the one that wrote that letter. C’mon, read it. He does not write that way. So who did he get to write it? The person that wrote it must have the $$$ to pay for the records and must have some interest in Century.
6. Henry deserves a pat on the back for having the backbone to do this. I bet he will run for mayor, financed by the person that is financing the letter. Call it the puppet effect.
7. This will get more interesting. Politics are always dirty in Century. Stay tuned.
Good for you Henery. It is about time that someone challanged the relationship between Freddy McCall and his good buddy Georges Van Nevel. Something is NOT right about the business dealings that went on between these two. I think records will show a shady relationship, If however, the records are ever produced. We will see!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!