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Lawyer sues Florida over CSX deal
(The following appeared on the St. Petersburg Times website on March 27.)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — With costs going up and some lawmakers cringing over liability risks, the $650-million commuter rail project for Orlando faces another complaint over its handling by state officials. A lawyer running to be a Leon County Circuit Judge, Mark E. Walker, sued the Florida Department of Transportation this week over a confidentiality agreement it struck with CSX in 2006.
"My visceral reaction is it doesn't smell good," said Walker, whose case says the information isn't exempt from public records laws.
The February 2006 deal let CSX, which is selling railroad for the commuter service, determine what would be confidential under the state's public records exemption for trade secrets. CSX would have to pay the state's legal bills if the deal was challenged.
Walker, who has undisclosed potential clients involved in the dispute, wants a judge to nullify the deal and review any documents that could be made public under Florida's open records law. Walker wouldn't disclose the people who asked him to press the issue. The case sprung from a records request by Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Lakeland, that turned up the confidentiality deal -- but Walker said he doesn't know Ross. Ross couldn't be reached.
Ross and other critics complain the state did not allow the project to be publicly discussed well enough before then-Gov. Jeb Bush announced the deal in August 2006 to buy CSX's rail for $150-million and make freight service improvements with remaining money.
Friday, March 28, 2008
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