Lawmaker who led Hope Florida probe aims to end public records delays

Jeffrey Schweers, Orlando Sentinel on Nov 20, 2025

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — State Rep. Alex Andrade, the Pensacola Republican who led a probe into the Hope Florida initiative championed by First Lady Casey DeSantis, has filed a sweeping bill that takes aim at tactics used by the DeSantis administration to thwart public inquiries.

The Republican governor and the state agencies under his control have gained a reputation for slow-walking or outright ignoring public records requests and for producing exorbitant cost estimates that can discourage journalists and others from following through on their requests.

Such strategies have been used against reporters delving into Hope Florida’s finances, the governor’s travel expenses, and the cost of building Alligator Alcatraz, among others.

Andrade’s bill, filed Monday, would curb those practices by requiring agencies to respond to requests within a matter of days, outlining the amount of time it will take to produce the records and detailing any potential costs.

“We need to reassert the importance of the public record act and transparency in good government,” said Andrade, who has become a vocal critic of the governor and his administration.

Sen. Darryl Rouson, a Democrat from St. Petersburg, is expected to file a companion bill in the Senate — similar to a bill he filed last year that failed to make any headway. The bills, if they receive support in the GOP-dominated Legislature, would be taken up in its next session that starts in January.

Florida’s Sunshine law was once a beacon of good governance and transparency, but critics say an increase in government secrecy and a drop in compliance with public records requests has caused the state’s reputation to slip. A recent Brechner Institute study shows Florida ranks 31st in government transparency.

Current Florida law doesn’t provide a specific time frame for agencies to comply with public records requests, only that they make a prompt and good faith effort to provide information in a reasonable amount of time. Andrade’s bill would change that.

The attitude toward public records laws displayed by DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier, whose job is to uphold all state laws including the public records act, sets the tone for state agency heads and local officials, Andrade said.

“If folks see the governor thumbing his nose at the public records act and the man who drafts the manual enforcing it egregiously not complying with it, why should they?” Andrade asked.

Uthmeier’s office delayed releasing requested public records about a $10 million Medicaid settlement agreement that was at the heart of Andrade’s legislative probe into Hope Florida last session. It took threatening letters from the law offices of several newspapers, including the Orlando Sentinel, before the documents were released.

In another case, the Florida Division of Emergency Management ignored requests for the contracts awarded for the construction of Alligator Alcatraz, and when reporters found those contracts online, Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie had them removed.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement dragged its feet for two years on a public records request from the Sentinel for the governor’s travel records until the Legislature passed a law making those records exempt from disclosure, claiming it was doing so in the interest of public safety.

In 2023, the Florida Department of Education said it would charge the Sentinel more than $10,000 to get copies of complaints filed against private schools that take state scholarships. The newspaper, which expected to pay about $1,500, said that amount was out-of-line with what was charged in past years and an effort to block access to public records on a topic of public interest.

Andrade’s bill would make it a violation of state law to fail to promptly acknowledge the receipt of a public records request. It would require a state agency’s custodian of records to either provide the requested records within three days or provide a “good faith estimate” about how long it would take and the expected cost of producing the requested records.

Too often, Andrade said, an exorbitant bill the requestor cannot afford becomes a tactic to avoiding following Florida’s public records law.

The bill also allows an agency to waive all or part of the fees if the request is for a public purpose – including public agency program support, nonprofit activities, journalistic activities, and academic or other research.

Agencies also would not be allowed to charge for the cost associated with redacting exempt or confidential information from a public record under Andrade’s bill.

Bobby Block, executive director of the First Amendment Foundation, said this bill would go a long way to knocking the tarnish off the state’s much abused Sunshine law, and “restore Florida’s image as a national leader in this area.”

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