Gov. Rick Scott has eased his public records policy after complaints from newspaper editors and public records advocates.

Scott announced Thursday he is lowering costs for some public records requests, a reversal of his policy charging the maximum allowable under state law for records that take more than 30 minutes to fulfill.

Scott’s new policy does away with any administrative costs for requests that take less than half an hour to process and imposes a reduced fee for those that take longer.

The changes came after a review by Scott, his legal staff and the governor’s new chief of staff, Steve MacNamara, Scott spokesman Brian Burgess said.

“There are going to be additional enhancements that further embrace Florida’s Sunshine Laws. We’re moving in that direction,” Burgess said.

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Gov. Rick Scott is hosting another of his “social” dinners with lawmakers at the governor’s mansion this evening.

But this time, he’s limiting the supper club to two House members to avoid getting the legislators into trouble for possible violations of the state’s broad Sunshine laws.

Florida’s open government laws require meetings with more than two lawmakers to be open to the public but there’s been a lot of debate within the Scott’s press office and the press corps about what exactly “open” means.

Scott’s dinner with three powerful GOP senators earlier this week may have violated the Senate’s rules regarding the constitutional requirements of open meetings.

Scott, who held a similar power dinner with House members previously, would not have broken any laws – they apply to lawmakers, not the governor. He’s restricted to opening the meetings if they involve the Senate President or House Speaker.

But to err on the side of caution, Scott’s dinner tonight will be limited to just two House members. His spokesman Brian Hughes wouldn’t say who they are.

Gov. Rick Scott, a few of his closest aides and three of the Senate’s most powerful lawmakers broke bread at the governor’s mansion last night, covering a variety of topics ranging from Ironman triathlons to Scott’s $65 billion budget. The dinner took place just a few hours after Scott released his first-ever budget to the public earlier in the day.

But questions about whether the dinner violated the spirit of Florida’s open government laws – if not the laws themselves – have Scott’s office reconsidering future soirees.

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander and Senate Majority Leader Andy Gardiner and Sen. Don Gaetz – two probable future senate presidents – also discussed major league baseball and the use of psychotropic drugs on children at the hour-long dinner with Scott, his wife Ann, and Scott’s chief of staff Mike Prendergast, special advisor Mary Ann “Mac” Carter, special counsel Hayden Dempsey and communications director Brian Burgess. Two reporters also attended at Scott’s invitation.

The governor and Senate trio discussed in broad terms his request that lawmakers give him $800 million to attract new businesses to the state and help existing ones expand. Scott said he was told that the current process – requiring approval from a legislative committee before the economic development grants or tax credits can be spent – is too lengthy and has caused the state to lose some deals because other states swooped in.

Whether the lawmakers’ chat was a violation of state Sunshine Laws is unclear.

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Pat Gleason, the veritable font of all government in the sunshine knowledge, is going back to work at the attorney general’s’ office, this time for AG-elect Pam Bondi.

Gleason is currently serving as Gov. Charlie Crist’s special counsel in the Office of Open Government and has for years been the go-to lawyer on matters regarding Florida’s broad Sunshine laws.

“Pat is a leading authority in our state on open government and public records, and I am honored to have her join my administration,” Bondi said in a press release. “We have worked together for over a decade, and I have the highest respect for her work ethic, integrity and the transparency she brings to the government process.”

Gov.-elect Rick Scott is winding up three days of behind-closed-doors briefings from his nearly 200 transition team members to prepare for his move into the governor’s office on Jan. 4.

Scott’s meeting in private with his teams although First Amendment Foundation lawyers say the meetings should be open to the public.

Scott’s aides told Palm Beach Post reporter John Lantigua the meetings on the 12th floor of the Florida Atlantic University-Broward College Higher Education Complex were off-limits. He was advised to wait in the lobby to interview attendees inside the public building.

When Scott’s briefing from his economic development team ended, Lantigua caught some of the attendees on the 12th floor before being asked by a Scott aide to leave.

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Gov.-elect Rick Scott has established a one-year lobbying ban for any member of his transition team and designated the state’s current Sunshine Laws guru to serve as his open government coordinator.

Scott’s ethics code, released today, bars any member of his transition team for lobbying on behalf of any state entity for one year after leaving the team.

The code also requires team members to pledge “to act solely in the best interest of the people of the State of Florida, and to abide by all relevant laws. I further agree to perform only those activities that I have been directed to perform by an appropriate transition official and will use any information obtained in the course of those activities only for authorized purposes.”

Pat Gleason, currently Gov. Charlie Crist’s director of Cabinet Affairs and the special counsel for Crist’s Office of Open Government, will advise Scott, who’s never held office before, about the state’s broad public records and government-in-the-sunshine meetings laws.

Scott also tapped Chris Kise as his chief lawyer during the transition. Kise, a partner in the Foley & Lardner law firm, previously served as Crist’s general counsel and as solicitor general for the state.

Scott assumes office on Jan. 3.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum today said messages sent between Blackberry devices, known as PINs, are indeed public records and that the state is capable of retaining the documents.

For years, PIN messages — regularly used among lobbyists, lawmakers and governor’s office officials — have fallen into a loophole in state Sunshine Laws because state officials have maintained the messages could not be recorded by government e-mail servers. (Press release here.)

McCollum, who is running for governor in 2010, said today that’s not true. He said PINs and other instant messages can be capture by, essentially, flipping a switch on a server. He said his agency would start keeping those records starting today and urged Gov. Charlie Crist, his fellow Cabinet members, state agencies and the legislature to do the same.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Crist said later in an interview with The Palm Beach Post. “We’ll follow suit.”

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A criminal investigation of former Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom, recently indicted on charges of falsifying the state budget, has turned up e-mails related to the scandal that supposedly did not exist when The Palm Beach Post requested the documents from the legislature.¹

The Post asked Sansom’s office Dec. 10 to turn over the previous 20 days of e-mails that the Destin Republican had either sent and received. The request was made to gauge public reaction to news that Sansom may have received a six-figure job from Northwest Florida State College in exchange for funneling millions of state dollars to the school.

The Post also sought messages between Sansom and then-college President James “Bob” Richburg about the scandal.

The House responded with documents that showed Sansom neither sent nor received a single e-mail for 11 days.

But that is not true, prosecutors’ files show. Documents found by Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs reveal several e-mails from that time, including a conversation among Sansom, Sansom’s communication director and Richburg, who was fired for his involvement in the controversy.²

“We need to be concerned about this,” said Barbara Petersen, president of the Florida First Amendment Foundation, when told about the discovered e-mails. “I’m almost speechless when I see what the legislature is doing and how they’re doing it.”³

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1. The Palm Beach Post, 04/18/09: Ex-House speaker’s indictment blasts secret budget deals
2. Click here for the e-mails included in Meggs’ case file, but not in a public records request made to the House.
3. Petersen was chairwoman of Gov. Charlie Crist’s Commission on Open Records Reform. The panel issued a report in January that determined the legislature has rules for itself that may be inconsistent with state public records laws.