For use Sunday, March 14

Sunshine Week

Good time to remind the public about free access

Some things get better with age.

This is one of them: “All state, county and municipal records shall at all times be open for a personal inspection of any citizen of Florida and those in charge of such records shall not refuse this privilege to any citizen.”

Now 101 years old, Florida’s open-government or sunshine foundation is celebrated on this day, Sunshine Sunday, and the rest of the week.

Our favorite parts of the annual observance:

• Pointing out the importance of the public’s right to know about the public’s business.
• Reminding everyone that the press enjoys no special access to files and meetings beyond that of anyone else, so we all have a stake in letting maximum sunshine in. When any of us gets rebuffed, all of us get rebuffed and it gets harder to get access next time.

We have fresh examples of our sunshine laws at work, or not.

We see videos — yes, they are public records too — of law enforcement officers making dubious choices in the line of duty. Those range from controlling a crime suspect to derogatory comments about colleagues and citizens on the beat.

We are left to wonder which illegal aliens are in custody as the result of a highly touted partnership of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and federal immigration authorities. They tell us to trust them; illegals’ families and lawyers are kept abreast.

We see the full sunshine of TV and video finally fight their way in to meetings of citizens advisory committees to the Collier County School Board.

Though we may be accused of bias, we see the Daily News and naplesnews.com take part in live streaming of key sessions of governmental boards as well as informational/public town hall meetings that we co-sponsor with the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce.

We see the irony of public release of official minutes of an executive session of Marco Island City Council meeting where part of the discussion is about how the issue at hand would play out with the public.

We see examples of public policy that would have benefited from a fuller, advance airing. While Collier County Public Schools grading and homework matters, for example, did not take shape illegally, they did not come to light in a way that invited public input and buy-in either. Public skepticism ensued.

We see e-mails remain problematic for elected officials, most recently in Bonita Springs. After a Marco Island case seemingly set the statewide standard for e-mails being on par with paper, a Bonita council member, Janet Martin, had to learn the hard way about protecting copies for what they are — public records.

We see how red light cameras work, and whether elected officials choose to obey speed limits and license suspensions.

We see officials lean toward secrecy amid active investigations, such as the case of a death of a Lee County Jail inmate.

Only days after his death, those logs would have been public if anyone requested them. But after an investigation began — once the media drew attention to his death — the logs were made off-limits. We tend to believe once a record is public it should always be public.

We also see an opportunity — to point out that public records requests do not have to be explained or put in writing. The law says so.

We see yet another opportunity, to suggest federal authorities could borrow a page from Florida’s book. When we asked about a federal probe into Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott’s appearance at an Estero rally for Sarah Palin, we were told “no comment’’ due to concerns for Scott’s privacy.

Mind you, the incident in question involved a public appearance by a public official, in uniform, before a capacity crowd at Germain Arena.

Our bottom line each year is the same: Sunshine laws are there for a reason — access and accountability. Smart public officials — who know they are public servants and understand the value of transparency — look for ways to embrace rather than avoid sunshine’s cleansing powers.

Our sunshine laws are not in place for the press. They are in place for all of us.

Yet, the public’s “right to know’’ is not automatic. We have to be aware of that and be prepared to defend it.

Thank you for your support, and happy Sunshine Sunday.

This is just the beginning of Sunshine Week. If you know of a sunshine story, for better or for worse, that merits special attention, please write or call Editorial Page Editor Jeff Lytle at jlytle@naplesnews.com or 263-4773.

Reproduced courtesy of the Naples News.
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