Paper beats a story
A crooked phone photo of one page beats the most confident paragraph you can type. Send the page. I’ll go dig up the rest of it.
The tip line
Bring paper.
You don’t need the whole story. One page and a rough idea of when. That’s enough to start on — I’ve built worse out of less.
Email berry@thecityofplantcity.comWhat makes a good one
Four things that turn a hunch into a story
A date beats a name
Tell me roughly when a thing got decided and I can pull the agenda, the minutes and the video off it. A name with no date on it is a rumor that put on a nice shirt.
What you saw, not what it meant
Keep it plain. Who was in the room. What got said. What was up on the screen. The arguing comes later, out loud, with the file attached.
Say what you can’t risk
If one detail puts your name on it at work, put that in the first line. I don’t burn people and I don’t print vibes. Two rules, neither one bends.
Doing it yourself
You can file the same request I do
Florida’s public records law belongs to you, and it’s short enough to read on a lunch break. You don’t have to say why you want a thing. You don’t have to give your name. Ask for a specific document over a specific date range, ask what it’ll cost before you say yes to anything, then go on and be a nuisance about it. Politely. That’s the fun part.
That part, unlike me, is real.
Elsewhere