By: Barbara Clowdus, Sunshine State News
On the surface, it appears to be a legal dispute between the South Florida Water Management District and the Everglades Law Center -- then again, this is Martin County, where things aren’t often as they appear, and where misinformation and hyperbole seem to rule.
The argument over whether the transcript of a SFWMD mediation meeting among its attorneys and the district's governing board should be made public under the state's Sunshine Laws, Chapter 119, or remain confidential under the state's mediation laws, Chapter 44, is now before the Fourth District Court of Appeal.
The law center filed the appeal Thursday, challenging Martin County Circuit Court Judge William Roby's ruling March 6 that Chapter 44 prevails, thus denying a writ of mandamus brought by Everglades Law Center in December that would have forced SFWMD to hand over the Aug. 23 transcript, the only meeting transcript not already released to the public in the Lake Point case…