Monroe County, FL - Public Records and Site Disclaimer

Under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not want your e-mail address released in response to a public-records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone or in writing, at 1100 Simonton Street, Key West, Fl. 33040. Anything sent in writing is also a public record. E-mail sent to any officer or employee of Monroe County with respect to their official duties is also a public record. Full text of bill

Thank you for visiting the Official Site of Monroe County, Florida (“Site”). It is presented to you by the Monroe County Board of County Commissioners. Our Site adheres to high Internet standards by complying with the State of Florida’s Public Records statutes and laws, by observing and championing Net etiquette, linking externally without endorsements, and by aiming for factual information throughout the Site. By accessing or using the Site, information, materials and data contained in the Site www.monroecounty-fl.gov World Wide Web pages, the user hereby agrees to accept the following terms and conditions contained below: Linkage

The Official Site of Monroe County, Florida, provides links to many web sites that are not controlled, maintained, or regulated by us. As such, Monroe County is not responsible for the content of those linked web sites or such sites’ hyper-links. Use of information from those web sites by the user is voluntary. Users should rely on the information from non-County agency sites only after undertaking an independent review of its accuracy. References at those web sites to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the Official Site of Monroe County, Florida. When you link to a non-County agency site you are subject to the privacy policy of the new site and the information collected or used on those non-County agency sites.

Links to Other Governmental Units & Educational Institutions - Monroe County provides links to other federal, state, and local governmental units that provide additional services and information those users of Monroe County’s Official Site may find of interest. Links are also provided to educational institutions which include Grades K through 12, school districts, intermediate school districts, community colleges, and universities.

Links to Private Organizations/Commercial sites - Monroe County does not provide links to private organizations or commercial sites unless the sites offers services or educational information that compliments the information or services offered by Monroe County. The determination of whether to establish a link to a private organization’s web site is made by Monroe County’s Public Information Office on a case-by-case basis.

Links to Non-Profit Organizations - Monroe County provides links to non-profit organizations that users of Monroe County’s Site may find of interest. The determination of whether to establish links to non-profit organizations is made by Monroe County’s Public Information Office on a case-by-case basis.

Monroe County encourages and permits links to content on the Monroe County Official Site. Under no circumstances should the linking (a) suggest that Monroe County promotes or endorses any third party’s causes, ideas, Web sites, products or services; (b) use Monroe County content for inappropriate and/or commercial purposes; (c) contain any hyper-link to any other sites without the prior written consent of such sites(s); or (d) violate any patent or copyright rights of any third parties. In addition, links to the Monroe County Site should be executed in such a way so that the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents book marking the linked page or prevents the acknowledgment of Monroe County as the owner of the content. Monroe County’s Public Information Office reserves the right to withdraw permission for any link at anytime with or without prior written notice.

By visiting the Official Site of Monroe County, Florida, users agree that they will not use the Site for any unlawful activity or use it in any way that would violate any of the terms and conditions stated in this Terms of Use and Legal Information.

The Official Site of Monroe County, Florida, has, will, or may contain threaded discussions, chat rooms, list servs and other communication forums. By participating in any of these, users agree to send and receive messages that are both proper and related to the forum topic. The following actions are unacceptable practices:

Also, users agree to use any Official Site of Monroe County, Florida, forum at their own risk. While championing proper use of such forums, Monroe County cannot and does not guarantee the users that violations of the above code for use of the Communications Forums will not occur.

It is the policy of the State of Florida that all records of the state or political subdivisions of the state are open for public inspection and copying, subject to certain exemptions. This policy is embodied in the Florida Constitution, together with the right of an individual to be free from unauthorized governmental intrusion into their private life, as provided in Article 1, Section 23of the Florida Constitution. In recognition of these policies, the County has established this Internet Privacy Policy. When you use our Site, you are acknowledging that any personal information you provide is subject to Florida’s Public Records Policy as stated in Chapter 119, Florida Statutes, and Article I, Section 24 of the Florida Constitution.

You do not have to give us personal information to visit our Web Site, download our publications, use our e-mail communications, or any other feature. We collect no personal information about you when you visit www.monroecounty-fl.gov unless you choose to provide this information to us or unless required by a specific County agency in order to transact business with that agency. We will use the information that you voluntarily provide to us to notify you of selected Site changes or new publications. We may also use it to conduct statistical analyses of user activities in order to measure user interest in the information we provide and how we provide it. However, we do collect and store some non-personal information automatically as stated below.

In order to process some transactions (or in the future to customize content specific to your geographic area or interests), we use cookie technology. A cookie is data that is stored on your computer’s hard drive or is stored temporarily by our system. This data allows your browser to communicate with our Web servers. We use the cookie to track your progress during a transactional process such as paying your real estate taxes online. When your transaction is completed, the cookie is saved on your PC. The only time we create a cookie is when you conduct a multi-part transaction.

Visitors to and users of the Official Site of Monroe County, Florida, are advised that information contained within the pages of the Site is believed to be accurate. However, errors can occur even with computer-generated information. The County makes no representation regarding the completeness, accuracy, or timeliness of such information and data or that such information and data will be error-free. In the event that the information on the County’s official printed documents differ from the information contained on this Web Site, the information on the County’s official printed documents will control and take precedence. Please be aware that in the event an error or omission occurs, Monroe County will use all of its resources to recover fees and taxes due to it.

Visitors are encouraged to review the official version of all documents upon which they plan to rely. Any special notices related to how accurate or how current specific elements of data presented in our Site will be defined on those specific pages.

When you use your credit card, debit card, or on-line checks to do business on the Official Site of Monroe County, Florida, we protect the integrity and privacy of your account information with advanced technologies . Our systems use Internet data encryption technology, known as the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol, Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (SHTTP), and Secure Electronic Transactions (SET).

However, even with advanced technologies, it is not always possible to prevent unauthorized access or unauthorized disclosure. The County makes no representation and assumes no responsibility or liability concerning the accuracy of the information or for any loss which might result to the user by the use of this Web Site. Please be aware that in the event unauthorized access, unauthorized disclosure, third party intervention, or any loss occurs due to error, omission, or inaccurate information being displayed on this Web Site, Monroe County reserves the right to recover any unpaid fees and taxes owed to it.

For security purposes and to help ensure this service remains available to you, we use special software programs for monitoring network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise to cause damage to this government computer system or Site. These programs collect no information that would directly identify individuals, but they do collect information that could help us identify someone attempting to tamper with this Web Site.

If you use this system or Site, you should understand that all activities may be monitored and recorded. Anyone using this system or Site expressly consents to such monitoring. WARNING—If such monitoring reveals possible evidence or information of criminal or suspicious activity, monitoring records may be provided to law enforcement officials without any prior oral or written notice to you.

Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, we make no other attempts to identify individual users or their usage habits. We only use raw monitoring data logs for determining trends in usage patterns and in diagnosing system or site problems.

As a condition of use of Monroe County’s Web Site, the user any/or anyone linking to the Site agree to indemnify Monroe County, its Commissioners, officers, employees, and agents against any and all liability, expenses (including attorney’s fees and court costs) and damages arising out of claims resulting from user’s use of this Web Site and/or anyone linking to the Site, including, without limitation, any claims alleging facts that if true would constitute a breach of these terms and conditions stated in this Terms or Use and Legal Information.

The Terms of Use and Legal Information are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, United States of America (USA). User and/or anyone linking to this Site consents to exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the courts in Monroe County, Florida, USA in all disputes arising out of or relating to the use of this Web Site. The users of the Web Site and/or anyone linking to this Site in jurisdictions outside of Monroe County, Florida, consent to jurisdiction in Monroe County, Florida.

If you have any questions, suggestions or comments about the information presented here, please forward them to us at: info@monroecounty-fl.gov If you have any complaints or would like to notify us of any copyrights or patented materials relating to this Site and/or anyone linking to this Site, please forward them to us at: info@monroecounty-fl.gov