Escambia County Commissioner Jeff Bergosh is calling for a special meeting of the County Commission to discuss why a county emergency management report on the local response to the coronavirus pandemic is being withheld from public release.

The daily report was deemed confidential by the Escambia County attorney under Florida's public records law as a "threat assessment."

The report contains information on the number of local hospital beds and ventilators available and other information about how local and state agencies are responding to the virus in Escambia County.

Initial story: Escambia County withholds daily report detailing local response to coronavirus

Bergosh, who had posted previous copies of the report on his blog, told the News Journal on Friday he sees no reason why the document shouldn't be public and said a special meeting is needed as the commission's next scheduled meeting isn't until May 7.

"I don't want to wait until May 7," Bergosh said. "I want this report to be published, and I think everyone should have access to it."

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The decision on whether to call a special meeting is up to Escambia County Chairman Steven Barry.

Barry last week said he believed the county should release all the information it had on the response to the virus as long as it was not privileged medical information.

Barry told the News Journal he was opened-minded to the idea of having a virtual special meeting, and would consider it more next week. He also said he hoped the administration would be able to address the concerns of the public before the next meeting.

"I am optimistic that they will be able to arrive at a course of action that balances the release of information that meets the needs of our board, our media partners, and most importantly, our citizens and constituents, with the privacy issues related to medically protected information and the public safety issues related to the integrity of threat assessment reports," Barry said.

Escambia County has issued 45 press releases on the local response to the coronavirus since March 13, but Friday's press release was the first one to give information on the number of ventilators and available hospital beds in the county.

Escambia County area hospitals have 222 total ventilators with 174 available, and 1,334 total beds with 585 available as of 8:30 a.m. Friday, according to the release.

Bergosh said he believes the number is key to understanding how the virus is impacting the local community, especially as people see national news reports of other places like New York struggling to cope with the virus.

"I just don't see a good reason why we wouldn't report it, especially when we have right now 80% of ventilators available, and we have almost like over 40% of our beds available," Bergosh said. "So, we're not having the problems that other places are having. That's a good thing that we should be thankful for, but why would anyone want to fight that information? I don't get it."

County Attorney Alison Rogers told the News Journal on Thursday she believed the daily report from the county was clearly a "threat assessment" under Florida statute chapter 119.071(3), and therefore the report was confidential and illegal for the county to release.

Barbara Peterson, president emeritus of the of the Florida First Amendment Foundation, told the News Journal in an email on Friday, that public agencies across Florida are attempting to use the same exemption to withhold information about the response to the pandemic.

"The security systems plans exemption in s. 119.071(3) was enacted just after 9/11," Peterson said. "Its purpose is to protect the physical security of public buildings and infrastructure from possible terrorist attacks. Some government agencies – universities, cities, counties – are citing the same exemption in denying access to pandemic response plans. The withholding of this vitally important information from the public is unconscionable."

Editorial: Public has right to see crucial daily coronavirus reports

Bergosh, who has been receiving the daily reports, said he doesn’t believe they are a "threat assessment" in any way.

"It's not like the Russians or the Chinese are going to leverage our hospital capacity information to attack us," Bergosh said. "…We're not at war. I mean, this is a virus, and even the bad guys are on our team on this one. We're all trying to figure it out."

Bergosh said even with the county releasing the number of hospital beds and ventilators on Friday, there is other important information in the report that he believes the public has a right to know.

"If some bureaucrat somewhere wants to say, 'No, they don't get to see it,' they're going to have to explain that to me and my counterparts," Bergosh said. "And I don't think any of us are going to agree with that. We want maximum transparency. Otherwise, people are not going to trust us."

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Commissioner Bergosh wants meeting on why county is withholding daily coronavirus report