The video that turned the Florida Senate into a laughingstock around the world is now a week and a half old.
Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, has apologized to his family, his constituents and the Florida Legislature for looking at the personal e-mail showing four g-strung, nipple-exposed young women, while a debate on abortion was proceeding on the Senate floor.
It was an accident, he said. The e-mail came from an old and trusted friend. He said as soon as he saw the contents, he stored it.
Nevertheless, the e-mail was up long enough for a videographer sitting in the gallery above to see it, photograph it and draw his own conclusions about it. If he could see it, others could see it.
Will the Senate make any changes to assure no such embarrassment can happen again?
Senate President Jeff Atwater said,
Right now a senator can open any e-mail that doesnt concern public business, and is not sent pursuant to public business even though Sen. Bennett admitted he thought the e-mail he was opening referred to business under discussion at that time.
Jay Vail, the Senates general counsel, wrote in an explanatory e-mail: Under these circumstances, the e-mail in question was not a public record. Private e-mails, even if stored on a public computer and accessed through a public computer, are not public record. (See State v. City of Clearwater 863 So 2d 149 (Fla. 2003.)
Vail said that some years earlier, the Senate passed a bill protecting itself from public disclosure of personal e-mail on Senate computers. In fact, the House has its own version of the law.
