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Home My WebLink About03-06-2007 Legal Opinion Regarding City Funds Used to publish Political Advertisement/FlyersAndrea Lorenzo-luaces From: Anthony Garganese [agarganese@orlandolaw.net] Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 3:40 PM To: Rick Brown; Donald Gilmore; Jan Palladino; John F. Bush; Joanne Krebs; Sally Mcginnis; ROBERT MILLER; Sally McGinnis Cc: Andrea Lorenzo-luaces Subject: RE: Legal Opinion Regarding City Funds Used to publish Political Advertisement/Flyer Follow Up Flag: Follow up Flag Status: Yellow I am writing to clarify one point I choose not to fully address in my previous letter at this time. I anticipated addressing it more fully later. In any event, there is no legal authority on the astute clarifying question raised by Commissioner Brown. There is no authority on this issue. It is gray. However, the definition of political committee is broad enough to include two or more municipalities and/or county pooling money for purposes of preparing a paid political advertisement. Further, even if two or more municipalities are exempt from creating a political committee, if they accept even one cent or an in -kind contribution from another non -government source for the express purpose of publishing a political advertisement, the political committee requirements will likely be triggered. Therefore, unless some legal authority develops that supports not creating a political committee in such cases, the safest course of action seems to be for the municipalities to create a political committee and avoid creating a technical issue that could distract from the substantive issue being advocated by the municipalities. WHILE THE FOLLOW-UP QUESTION TO ME WAS APPROPRIATE, THE MAYOR AND OTHER COMMISSIONERS SHOULD NOT RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL SINCE ONE COMMISSIONER HAS RESPONDED TO MY PREVIOUS EMAIL. Please call me individually if you have any follow-up questions. Anthony Garganese 225 East Robinson Street, Suite 660 P.O. Box 2873 Orlando, Florida 32802-2873 Phone (407) 425-9566 Fax (407) 425-9596 Kissimmee (321) 402-0144 Cocoa & Viera (866) 425-9566 Website: www.orlandolaw.net Email: agarganese@orlandolaw.net Any incoming e-mail reply to this communication will be electronically filtered for "spam" and/or "viruses." That filtering process may result in such reply being quarantined (i.e., potentially not received at our site at all) and/or delayed in reaching us. For that reason, we may not receive your reply and/or we may not receive it in a timely manner. Accordingly, you should consider sending communications to us which are particularly important or time - sensitive by means other than e-mail. Confidentiality Note: This e-mail, and any attachment to it, contains privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity named on the e-mail. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that reading it is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately return it to the sender and delete it from your system. Thank you. -----Original Message ----- From: Rick Brown [mailto:rick@rick-brown.com] Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 2:19 PM To: Anthony Garganese; 'Donald Gilmore'; 'Jan Palladino'; jfbush@pobox.com; 'Joanne Krebs'; Mcginsm@aol.com; 'ROBERT MILLER; 'Sally McGinnis' Cc: 'Andrea Lorenzo-luaces' Subject: RE: Legal Opinion Regarding City Funds Used to publish Political Advertisement/Flyer Does the same apply with regard to the pooling of funds with other municipalities or are they grouped under 'other entity'? -----Original Message ----- From: Anthony Garganese [mailto:agarganese@orlandolaw.net] Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 1:00 PM To: Donald Gilmore; Jan Palladino; jfbush@pobox.com; Joanne Krebs; Mcginsm@aol.com; rick@rick- brown.com; ROBERT MILLER; Sally McGinnis Cc: Andrea Lorenzo-luaces Subject: Legal Opinion Regarding City Funds Used to publish Political Advertisement/Flyer Importance: High Mayor and Commission, the attached letter is in preparation for the upcoming Legislative session which officially started today. As you know, Winter Springs, like all cities and counties, are very concerned about proposed bills that could impact the taxing authority of local government. Particularly, the attached opinion discusses the expenditure of city funds on city sponsored political advertisements and whether there is a requirement that a municipality create a political committee under Florida law before publishing such a political advertisement. Please call me if you have any questions. Anthony Garganese 225 East Robinson Street, Suite 660 P.O. Box 2873 Orlando, Florida 32802-2873 Phone (407) 425-9566 Fax (407) 425-9596 Kissimmee (321) 402-0144 Cocoa & Viera (866) 425-9566 Website: www.orlandolaw.net Email: aarganese@orlandolaw.net Any incoming e-mail reply to this communication will be electronically filtered for "spam" and/or "viruses." That filtering process may result in such reply being quarantined (i.e., potentially not received at our site at all) and/or delayed in reaching us. For that reason, we may not receive your reply and/or we may not receive it in a timely manner. Accordingly, you should consider sending communications to us which are particularly important or time - sensitive by means other than e-mail. Confidentiality Note: This e-mail, and any attachment to it, contains privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity named on the e-mail. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that reading it is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately return it to the sender and delete it from your system. Thank you.