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"\"Show us the text messages.\" That\u2019s what a group of sick pay initiative backers said to Orange County commissioners on Friday.The group, Citizens for a Greater Orange County, said it will take legal action against the county.The group said the lawsuit has two goals: preserve or retrieve text messages, they believe, will tell the story of the sick pay vote, and expose commissioners as \"sunshine law\" breakers.\"They do not have the right to conduct public business outside of the public view and then destroy or attempt to destroy the record of having done so,\" said Citizens for a Greater Orange County spokesman Marlon Washington.A WESH 2 News investigation revealed that the and three commissioners exchanged text messages with lobbyists during a heated public meeting about a sick pay measure.The measure would require businesses with more than 15 workers to offer paid sick time to all employees. The group gathered a petition to put the measure on the November ballot.The lawsuit seeks to enforce the Public Records Act and accuses the mayor and commissioners of destroying or attempting to destroy text messages.Count two claims a violation of Florida Open Public Meetings Law, which requires all statements and discussions to occur in the open and in public.  It said commissioners concealed the text communications from the public.The group hopes to prove commissioners were secretly using lobbyists as go-betweens to let other commissioners know how they might vote.\"And if they have done that, then what was their coordination on the part of lobbyists and commissioners to make that happen?\" said Scott Randolph for Citizens for a Greater Orange County.In a statement released by the county, Mayor Teresa Jacobs said she has already complied with the group's request.\"Mayor (Teresa) Jacobs has submitted all public records which reveal she did not receive any text messages regarding this issue from lobbyists before or during the September 11 hearing,\" Senior Orange County Assistant Attorney Robert Guthrie said in the statement.\u00A0The lawsuit was filed just as the county released new records provided by Commissioner Fred Brummer in which he said he had a dozen text messages between himself and three different lobbyists for Universal, SeaWorld, and Darden restaurants on Sept. 11, the day of the sick pay decision.  Brummer said he called several more but could not recall what was said.Brummer also said his phone is so new that technical staff could not retrieve the messages he deleted, even though Jacobs was successful last week in retrieving hers.Brummer is the third commissioner who, along with Jennifer Thompson and Scott Boyd, admits to speaking with lobbyists on the day of the sick pay vote."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wesh.com/article/sick-pay-supporters-want-commissioners-text-messages-1/4418780>