Hialeah politician told to pay for public records in 911 investigation
MIAMI - The 911 saga in Hialeah is intensifying.
Councilman Bryan Calvo wants to see public records involving 911 calls as part of his investigation into alleged problems with the city's emergency service. But to get them, the city wants to charge Calvo over $6,700 dollars.
"I think it's ludicrous. Essentially, the city is saying that an hourly employee is going to have to look through every single document that I've asked for and that would cost the municipality extra money," he said.
Calvo, 25, is the youngest Hialeah council member. He said on October 3rd he received a letter from the city clerk. The letter acknowledged that Calvo had asked the mayor for the opportunity to review the 10,242 email messages.
The document went on to say, "... the City has treated your request for an investigation as a public records request."
It also "... the City has an obligation to preserve the confidentiality of information that may be contained within the records you are requesting, and therefore, the records cannot be reviewed or copied without the review and redaction of these records."
"By taking these steps the mayor is essentially saying we're not going to give them to you because, well because he doesn't feel like it. Look if you have nothing to hide what's the problem providing the emails," said Calvo.
CBS News Miami reached out to the office of Mayor Esteban Bovo. He declined to be interviewed and instead released a statement that read in part, "I once again need to reiterate and confirm that the City of Hialeah's 911 Center is functioning properly."
According to Bovo, Calvo's actions are the result of a rejection from other council members to open "a frivolous investigation" last June.
The mayor's statement added that "as part of his witch-hunt, the councilman submitted 16 total public records requests to the city clerk's office. Fourteen of the 16 requests have been complied with, costing the taxpayers $5,423.37."
Bovo said reviewing over 10,000 emails would need to be done by a city employee who would invest about 170 hours of work and be paid appropriately.
But according to Calvo, the mayor had agreed to allow him to go through the emails himself to avoid paying for the records.
"Why all of a sudden did the mayor change his mind? What we expect is more transparency of government, not less of it," said Calvo.
"Is there a witch hunt, based on Hialeah's mayor statement?" asked CBS News Miami's Ivan Taylor.
"That's a ridiculous assertion," replied Calvo "Because I'm one of the few people in Hialeah who's asking questions, he wants to label me like that. Those are the reasons why we're elected. A young generation of new politicians elected in Hialeah and other cities to bring accountability to government."
Calvo said he is considering legal action against the city.
