NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. — Nassau County officials violated the state's public record law when they did not provide text messages sought by Rayonier in connection with a battle between the county and the company over who would pay for parks and recreational facilities in the Wildlight mega-development, a state judge has ruled.
Circuit Judge James H. Daniel granted summary judgment Aug. 24 to Rayonier after finding the county did not give Rayonier 147 pages of text messages exchanged by county commissioners and county employees.
Rayonier Places + Properties LLC, a subsidiary of Rayonier, is developing Wildlight on 2,900 acres in the eastern half of Nassau County. The first phase of development is under way with plans for 1,000 homes and commercial space called Wildlight Village. Rayonier built its headquarters in Wildlight.
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Rayonier praised the judge's ruling, saying it shows the county tried to conduct government business "in the shadows." Rayonier's lawsuit contended the text messages showed the county was coordinating a strategy in 2018 to exert pressure on Rayonier to put up more money for parks and recreational facilities.
An attorney representing Nassau County in the lawsuit did not respond to a request for comment.
Judge: Nassau County needs policy for keeping and deleting texts
Daniel wrote in his ruling that Nassau County lacked a record retention policy for text messages during the time frame Rayonier was seeking them.
He wrote that from Oct. 12, 2018, to Nov. 16, 2018, when Rayonier made its records request and followed up twice more with demands for the documents, the county at first provided no text messages whatsoever, then said it was "not aware of any text messages" and later said it had responded to the public records request.
Daniel said while the county was giving those responses, no one from the county told Rayonier that county commission members and employees "routinely deleted text messages from their phones or that the county had no records retention policy for text messages."
He said county commissioners and employees frequently used text messages to communicate about county business, but some used a setting on personal phones that automatically deleted text messages after 30 days, while others manually deleted messages "from time to time" to clear up space on their phones.
The judge declined to grant a summary judgment on Rayonier's other allegation that county officials violated the state's Government in the Sunshine law by meeting without public notice to discuss matters involving the Wildlight development.
Daniel said that contention is a matter of dispute between the company and the county so it would require a trial for a resolution.
Rayonier welcomed the summary judgment on the public records portion of its lawsuit and said it looks forward to pursuing its claims the county violated public meetings law.
"It has now been proven that County Attorney Mike Mullin and other county officials engaged in a regular pattern of covertly texting with each other about county business and then deleted the messages between them in an effort to conduct government in the shadows," Rayonier said in a statement.
"It is unfortunate that our county attorney was at the center of this illegal activity and that he advised several former county commissioners to do the same in clear violation of Florida law," the company said in response to the ruling.
Mullin declined to comment because it is pending litigation. He referred questions to Tallahassee attorney Greg Stewart, who represented the county. Stewart did not respond to a phone call and email seeking comment.
County's defense: Most texts had 'short-lived or no administrative value'
In its defense, the county told Daniels it had turned over thousands of pages of records in response to a public records request from Rayonier.
The county argued that a "majority of the text messages at issue" did not rise to the level of being public records under Florida law because they were "transitory conversational messages with short-lived or no administrative value."
Daniel disagreed and said the "overwhelming majority" of the text messages did fall into the categories of public records that should have been maintained by the county for three years or five years.
The ruling said the 147 pages of group text messages eventually came to light because two former county employees still had them.
Justin Stankiewicz, a former director of the office of management and budget, brought forward about 30 pages of text messages on Jan. 7, 2019 when he filed a grievance over his dismissal from his county job.
After Rayonier filed its lawsuit on Feb. 6, 2019, the county sent an email the next day telling Rayonier an "outside source" had provided text messages, a reference to the messages from the grievance.
After filing its suit, Rayonier subpoenaed former county administrator Shanea Jones and she provided 147 pages of text messages. Some of those overlapped the ones from the Stankiewicz grievance hearing while others were new, the ruling said.
Rayonier's lawsuit says Stankiewicz gave sworn testimony that Mullin told him on Nov. 6, 2018, to delete text messages that fell under the public records sought by Rayonier.
Stankiewicz also testified that Mullin said he had already deleted text messages on his own phone and intended to tell county commissioners and employees on the group texts to do the same, according to Rayonier's suit.
The county's response said Mullin never told Stankiewicz to delete any text messages. Mullin testified in a deposition that Stankiewicz said he had two Rayonier-related text messages on his phone that each consisted of one-sentence questions about whether to attend an upcoming meeting and whether to provide a report.
County Manager Taco Pope, who was the county's planning director at that time, said in his deposition he heard Stankiewicz say during the meeting he had group text messages. Pope and after Stankiewicz read one of them aloud, Mullin told him "some text messages were transitory in nature and did not need to be retained," according to the county's motion.
Pope "had a very clear memory" of the meeting and said Mullin did not "order, instruct or advise" Stankiewicz to delete any text messages, the county's motion said.
In October 2019, county commissioners approved an updated public records policy that covers how the county responds to requests and retains records. It spells out the employees must turn over any records they possess when they leave county employment.
The policy also prohibits employees from using private, non-government email addresses and cellphones for conducting government business.
