COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

Apparently Vero Beach 32963 reporter Lisa Zahner was not pleased to have her latest hatchet job on the city’s water and sewer department followed up by a substantive, thoughtful and unbiased account of the true value of the system to the City and its taxpayers.  Yesterday, the island weekly’s “watchdog” journalist set out to discover the identity of Inside Vero guest columnist “Lux et Veritas.”

Fancying herself to be an expert in Florida’s open records laws, Zahner wrote City Attorney Wayne Coment requesting copies of any and all commentary, (guest columns or blog posts), written by the City’s elected and/or appointed officials, including those serving on citizen advisory commission and boards.

Also believing herself to be gifted at identifying writing styles and authorship, Zahner wrote to Coment, “The views expressed and the statistics quoted sound an awful lot like those of Councilman Dick Winger.  The style also matches Winger’s rambling prose.”

“I believe these would be public record whether sent from a city computer or a personal computer or device,” Zahner added.

The first point to be made is that Zahner is not the detective she believes herself to be.  Neither is she the community’s brightest legal mind.  To assume, as Zahner does, that any expression of knowledge or opinion by an elected or appointed official constitutes a public record, even when that person is not acting in their official capacity, is at best a stretch.

The important test is whether, in writing the guest column or blog post, the person was acting in their official capacity, and/or was trading off their recognizable name and official title to gain influence.  An author writing under a pseudonym is not exactly leveraging their name and title to lend credence to their views.

Further, persons who happen to be elected officials or volunteers serving on citizen advisory boards do not surrender their right to free expression or to privacy.  To adopt Zahner’s interpretation of Florida’s public records laws would be to define any and every online comment regarding official business as a public record, whether posted anonymously or not.

Finally, anonymity, as any good “watchdog” journalist should know, is often essential in gaining access to and disseminating information and opinions which are vital to the public discourse.

Much like “Lexington,” an anonymous commentator for The Economist magazine, “Lux et Veritas” offers commentary for readers of InsideVero.com.  “Lux et Veritas” will be addressing local politics, lagoon contamination, quality of education, Libertarian and Liberal excesses, media reporting and agendas, wealth disparity and more.