An appeals court upheld an Osceola County resident’s legal filing, saying the county violated the state’s Government in the Sunshine laws in March 2020 when an emergency group that met made policy at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic without informing or inviting the public.
The 6th District Court of Appeals upheld the 2021 injunction filed in April 2020 by Josh Meyers, who alleged Osceola County’s Emergency Policy Group (EPG) met around 5 p.m. on April 13, 2020, and put a curfew and county mask mandate in place in the name of battling COVID-19. Without recourse for public input on that action, Meyers said he filed suit later that month.
Judge Robert Egan of the Ninth Judicial Circuit ruled the EPG was indeed a Sunshine Law-bound board and entity, requiring its meetings to be advertised, open to the public and a record kept. Egan also ruled against county’s stance that the meetings were exempt by state statute. The court order covers any group with authority like the EPG had in 2020.
This past month, the appeals court upheld the ruling.
“Osceola County had to convince five judges that what they were doing was right, and they couldn’t convince any of them,” Meyers said this week.
Should the county wish to file motions, they’re due this week.
“The ironic thing is, for three years, the county argued the Board of County Commissioners is not an entity. But, Osceola County certainly is. Then, (the county) tried to argue that it was an entity in standing, in order to get legal fees from me,” Meyers said. “At that point, that’s where they appealed it.”
A public document request showed the county spent $153,777 defending this case.
Originally, the court declared that EPG’s meetings conducted during the state of emergency were subject to the Sunshine Law, and that Osceola County, who created the EPG, violated the law by not allowing public access to the meetings. The court also said the County was enjoined from allowing the EPG (as it existed during the state of emergency) to meet outside the Sunshine Law moving forward, including prohibiting it from holding open-to-the-public meetings without proper notice.”
In October 2020, weeks after this injunction was filed, Osceola County amended that group, calling it the Executive Advisory Group going forward, noting it “will simply advise” the county on what emergency actions to take in the face of things, like impending hurricanes.
When amending the group, County Manager Don Fisher said the EPG’s 2020 came “without a playbook” for such a pandemic.
In an ironic dose of timeliness, the group met last week to consider the response to Hurricane Idalia. Hours after telling the public that no closures would be required or recommended, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Aug, 29 added Osceola County to the state’s state of emergency declaration. Hours later, a domino effect of school and government office closures were announced.
“Did they make decisions when they met? More than likely,” Meyers said. “My attorneys and I have drawn a line of where the county would be in violation of this order again.”
