Florida Senate - 2009                      CS for CS for SB 2126
       
       
       
       By the Committees on Governmental Oversight and Accountability;
       and Communications, Energy, and Public Utilities; and Senator
       King
       
       
       585-05356-09                                          20092126c2
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to public records; providing an
    3         exemption from public-records requirements for
    4         specified proprietary confidential business
    5         information obtained from a communications company or
    6         broadband company by the Department of Management
    7         Services; providing for future review and repeal of
    8         the exemption; providing a statement of public
    9         necessity; providing a contingent effective date.
   10  
   11  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   12  
   13         Section 1. Communications and broadband company proprietary
   14  confidential business information; public-records exemption.—
   15         (1) Any proprietary confidential business information
   16  obtained from a communications company or broadband company by
   17  the Department of Management Services, or any person or agency
   18  authorized by the department, is confidential and exempt from s.
   19  119.07(1), Florida Statutes, and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State
   20  Constitution.
   21         (2) For the purposes of the exemption provided in
   22  subsection (1), the term “proprietary confidential business
   23  information” includes any proprietary or otherwise confidential
   24  information or documentation, including plans, billing and
   25  payment records, trade secrets, or other information, and must
   26  be specifically marked and identified as such at the time
   27  initially provided to the department, which is intended to be
   28  and is treated by the communications or broadband company as
   29  confidential and is not otherwise publicly available to the same
   30  extent and in the same format as requested by the department.
   31  Proprietary confidential business information does not include
   32  aggregate information related to the geographic scope of the
   33  availability of broadband services or the speed of services that
   34  are available in the state so long as the information does not
   35  directly or indirectly identify a provider of broadband
   36  services.
   37         (3) This section is subject to the Open Government Sunset
   38  Review Act in accordance with s. 119.15, Florida Statutes, and
   39  shall stand repealed on October 2, 2014, unless reviewed and
   40  saved from repeal through reenactment by the Legislature.
   41         Section 2. The Legislature finds that it is a public
   42  necessity that proprietary confidential business information
   43  obtained from a communications company or broadband company by
   44  the Department of Management Services, or any person or agency
   45  authorized by the department, be held confidential and exempt
   46  from public-records requirements. Disclosure of proprietary
   47  confidential business information would adversely affect the
   48  business interests of communications and broadband companies
   49  providing such information by harming them in the marketplace
   50  and compromising the security of the communications network.
   51  Further, disclosure of such proprietary confidential business
   52  information would impair competition in the communications
   53  industry. Competitors can use such information to impede full
   54  and fair competition in the communications marketplace to the
   55  disadvantage of the consumers of communications services. Thus,
   56  it is the finding of the Legislature that proprietary
   57  confidential business information obtained from a communications
   58  company or broadband company by the Department of Management
   59  Services, or any person or agency authorized by the department,
   60  must be held confidential and exempt from disclosure under s.
   61  119.07(1), Florida Statutes, and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State
   62  Constitution.
   63         Section 3. This act shall take effect on the same date that
   64  CS for SB 2092 or similar legislation takes effect, if such
   65  legislation is adopted in the same legislative session or an
   66  extension thereof and becomes law.