A Hialeah politician wants public records on 911 calls. The city wants $6,700 for that

Hialeah wants to charge Councilman Bryan Calvo $6,769 for public records involving 911 operations. The request comes after el Nuevo Herald revealed deficiencies in the city’s emergency service.

According to a letter sent on Sept. 12 to Calvo by Hialeah City Clerk Marbelys Fatjo, processing one of his requests would take 170 additional hours of work. That request included searching for keywords about the department: lost, abandoned, complaint, staffing, shortage, crisis and drastic.

170 hours of work to review 10,000 emails

The city clerk told Calvo that the City Information Technology Department found 10,242 emails with the requested search terms, so “it is estimated that it will take approximately one hundred and seventy hours (170) to review the messages for confidential or exempt information, and redact these records for information that is exempt from public disclosure pursuant to law.”

Fatjo said the estimated charge for “special service” was calculated based on the employee’s hourly rate, salary and benefits, of $39.82”

On June 27, the same day that Calvo made the public records request for “any document related to the city’s 911 Center,” he urged other council members to support his proposal to investigate the department, but didn’t get it.

And in a memo to Calvo on Tuesday, Oct. 3, the city clerk told the councilman that the investigation effort is being treated as a “public records request,” which comes with a cost to review and then redact “confidential or exempt information.”

Calvo’s request to the City Clerk’s office came one day after his call for an investigation into 911, which was later ruled out by the mayor.

Can a city charge a council member for information?

Information provided by the City Clerk’s office to el Nuevo Herald indicates that in the last 10 years “there is no record” of any charge or billing made to a city council member for public records.

“If he wants four or five papers, I cooperate, but the council member is starting an investigation on his own,” Bovo said. “It is not authorized by the council and therefore, I cannot allow it to commit department employees to comply.”

But former Hialeah mayor Raúl Martínez said he “had never heard of a council member being charged for doing his or her job, which is to investigate, find out and inform themselves before making a decision on a specific issue in the city.”

According to the Hialeah municipal code, one of the duties of the City Council is to “inquire into the conduct of any municipal office, department, agency or officer and to investigate municipal affairs, and for that purpose, may subpoena witnesses, administer oaths and compel the production of books, papers or other evidence.”

Although Bovo said he was looking for an alternative to provide Calvo with the information he requested, he added that “the councilman has already shown that he does not ask the necessary questions, he does not meet with anyone from the departments he is trying to investigate, and I honestly am not going to pay attention to his nonsense.”

Mayor Bovo said that if Calvo would get he documents if he wants to sit in a hall of the mayor’s office with them without taking them to his home.

“I have to guarantee and protect sensitive information,” the mayor said. “The fact that he is a lawyer does not give me confidence.”

For Calvo, the situation affects local transparency.

“These are actions that would be expected in a country without democracy,” Calvo said. “The people deserve answers.”

El Nuevo Herald asked nearby municipalities, including Miami Springs, Miami Gardens, Hialeah Gardens, Doral and North Miami, if they charge city council members for public records during the last two decades. All the cities responded through their city clerk’s offices that they found no records of charges to elected council members for requesting public records in the last 20 years.

The political confrontation between Councilman Calvo and Mayor Bovo isn’t new. Over the past 12 months, the politicians have clashed publicly over issues including the creation of a redevelopment agency, the city budget and increasing water rates.

More recently, 911 emergency response, which is below the national standard, has created distrust between the two.

Both public officials were elected in November 2021 and will finish their first terms in 2025.