Editorial excerpts

Excerpts from editorials in Florida newspapers for Sunshine Sunday

By The Associated Press

The following are excerpts from newspaper editorials written about efforts in the Florida Legislature to close off access to public records or meetings. Florida newspapers printed editorials on the topic Sunday in an effort called “Sunshine Sunday.”

The Tampa Tribune:

Lawmakers in Florida are considering dozens of bills that would close the curtain on the state’s Sunshine law.

It is a scary trend that stands to hurt citizens who elect leaders to represent their interests, not those of special interests.

The Sunshine law exists because a previous generation of Tallahassee lawmakers, dubbed the “Pork Chop Gang,” liked to meet behind closed doors then tell everyone what was good for them.

Florida citizens mobilized, and in 1967, encouraged passage of one of the country’s most powerful laws on public access to government records and meetings.

Still, every year, some lawmakers, responding to special interests, try to chip away at our guarantees.

In one move, Rep. Lindsay Harrington, R-Punta Gorda, and Sen. Durrell Peaden, R-Crestview, want to kill a public record that helps police find criminals. The bill, backed by the National Rifle Association, passed in the House last week.

Harrington and Peaden say data bases of pawn shop gun sales should be eliminated because they are “de facto registration lists.” They argue that police could use the information to profile innocent gun owners.

There’s no evidence the information has been used for profiling. However, there is ample evidence that police have used the database to track gun thefts and capture thieves.

As lawmakers contemplate laws that would limit public input and public examination, they must understand that disclosure is the people’s choice and open government our expectation.

The News-Press of Fort Myers:

Florida’s rich heritage of open government is under attack again this year in the Legislature, and the state’s newspapers are joining forces, again, to resist that assault.

Today marks the third “Sunshine Sunday,” a special effort sponsored by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors to increase public awareness of the importance of the state’s open government laws.

This is not a media issue. Every citizen has a vital interest in keeping public the meetings and records that can help the public understand what is being done in the its name.

But newspapers need strong open government laws to inform their readers about public business.

It frequently falls to the press to fight, sometimes in court, for access to records and meetings.

We need public support. In the two previous legislative years, almost all of about 300 proposed exemptions to the open government laws have been defeated. Part of that is due to a constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2002, requiring a two-thirds majority in both houses of the legislature to create exemptions to the open records and meetings laws.

Another key role for citizens is to contact legislators and urge them to vote against open government exemptions.

More than 50 new exemptions laws are being sought in the Legislature so far this session. Many are “real stinkers,” to use the characteristically blunt language of Barbara Peterson. She’s the president of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee, which wages an endless resistance in defense of open government.

At stake is your right to know. We are eager to defend open government. We ask for your support in the fight because it is in your clear interest.

Pensacola News Journal:

It happens every year.

Every year there are people who want the Florida Legislature to curtail your right to see government records or attend governmental meetings.

Florida has some of the strongest open-government laws in the country. The best known is the Sunshine Law. And every year, people want to find a place where they can hide from the sunshine.

No, not every exemption to sunshine laws are bad, and needed exemptions do get and have been made. But necessary exemptions are few and far between.

But that doesn’t stop people from seeking more.

Over the last two years, almost 300 open government exemptions were proposed, and most were beaten back by an aroused public and media.

Newspapers around the state report that local agencies are complying with public records requests only about half the time. And there are other ways to chill your right to open government. For instance, newspapers and citizens face increasing demands to pay high fees when requesting copies of public documents. Special interests with a desire to operate in the dark know that if you can’t afford to make a copy of that document, it makes it harder to know what’s in it.

And that leads us to a key point: The laws that guarantee open meetings and open records are not just for the media.

When legislators shut another backroom door, they are slamming it in your face.

Over the years, legislators have created almost 900 exemptions to open government in Florida, and sought many more. Fortunately, because you have the right to know what government is doing, they can’t do it in the dark.

St. Petersburg Times:

“Improper services to capitalists are usually rendered behind closed doors” said President Theodore Roosevelt, who knew first hand the corruption and self-dealing politicians engaged in away from the public’s gaze. As Roosevelt suggests, the best way to keep government accountable is to open it to the sunshine.

Without a strong commitment to public records and open meetings, Floridians would be unable to track where their tax money is going or the content of contracts between the state and private vendors. Back room decisions could be made among elected officials without public knowledge or input. And the work-product of government: environmental studies, building and restaurant inspections, and police disciplinary records, could be put out of reach.

Perhaps the most concerning measure of the nearly 60 open government exemptions that have been proposed so far is one that would prevent law enforcement agencies and private individuals from keeping a record of firearm owners after 60 days. ... If that information has to be expunged after two months, guns used later in crimes will be harder to track.

And this is the second year in a row that the Legislature is proposing to give a special public records exemptions to the cell phone records of all law enforcement personnel. Under the bill, the public would be unable to scrutinize the potential misuse of a taxpayer-funded cell phone.

These dilutions damage the ability of Floridians’ to be knowledgeable about how their state is being run, and each should be vigorously opposed.

The News Herald of Panama City:

Earlier this month, after almost one year of litigation, Circuit Judge Dedee Costello ruled that a county judge tarnished the judicial system’s integrity by closing off routine court documents from public inspection for no good reason.

By the time Costello ruled, on March 3, the records sought by The News Herald had no immediacy. They involved April 2003 search warrants used in the Girls Gone Wild arrests and property confiscations.

However, blocking public inspection of records relating to court-issued search warrants was, from the outset, an alarming development that could not be allowed to stand. It raised the chilling specter of an even darker world in which names of those arrested as a result of court-approved search warrants also are kept from the public; in that world, people and property just disappear.

Importantly, newspapers do not ask for or expect more access than what’s available to any citizen. Newspapers help disseminate knowledge gleaned from public meetings and records. They are not, nor can they pretend to be, an adequate substitute for a curious mind.

In the Internet age especially, newspapers serve best to spark curiosity and not to satisfy it. Be wary of any government body or agency that doesn’t have a fertile Web site. Judge Costello’s vigilance in maintaining the court system’s image of integrity is well placed. When public officials and public employees at any level of government do not respect the people’s right to know, the people have every right to suspect they have bartered for other ends the public’s confidence and their own credibility.

The Florida Times-Union:

It’s easy to take Florida’s open government laws and their value for granted.

But imagine what life would be like if the city council could close its meetings to the public and conceal its decisions about spending tax dollars, or how consumers would fare if records on doctor discipline or property appraisals were off limits.

Our society would be a much different place and not necessarily for the better.

Today, the Times-Union joins newspapers throughout Florida in noting the importance of open government as part of Sunshine Sunday, an effort coordinated by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors.

Public meetings and records laws help ensure that government stays accountable to the governed. The Legislature can — and does — create exemptions to the state’s open government laws, and state lawmakers are again proposing dozens.

Some may be justified, but many — such as a proposal to exempt cell phone billing records for law enforcement officers — are not.

Government by the people works best when the people can see how it is working.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

Open government and open records are vital tools of state government that help Floridians reach fair and informed decisions and better determine the way state residents want their society to operate.

Unfortunately, the biggest threat to open government and open records usually occurs around this time of year when the Florida Legislature convenes in Tallahassee for its annual 60-day session.

Legislators just can’t help themselves. They routinely file bills to keep information from the public. So far, the Legislature has offered almost twice the number of public-record exemptions bills filed last year.

That’s why Floridians must take stock of the rights and provisions offered them under Government in the Sunshine.

Imagine the problems business owners would have if they couldn’t check public records to see if potential employees have been convicted of a crime.

Picture the nightmares if school districts couldn’t use public records to determine if prospective teachers had criminal records for being child abusers.

Florida’s open records and open meetings laws are essential to help state residents become better-informed citizens. With these laws, Floridians can do better at keeping up with state and local government agenda items and actions.

Vigilance, though, is crucial. Florida’s high regard for open government won’t last if its citizens let any efforts to curtail information go unchallenged.

The Miami Herald:

The Florida Legislature has been in session for less than a month, but attacks on open government are well under way. One measure would impose a $5 million fine on police agencies that keep lists of pawnshop gun sales used to track criminal suspects. Another would exempt a new state-funded Alzheimer’s institute from disclosure laws.

Meanwhile, lawmakers collect unlimited amounts of money from special-interest groups in thinly disguised slush funds. Florida’s “Sunshine laws” are designed to protect against such practices.

Law-enforcement agencies clearly should be able to keep gun-sales lists. Taxpayers should have access to records about a tax-funded research center’s operations. And voters should know who makes financial contributions to legislators.

But such information isn’t always available. Slush funds can masquerade as “committees of continuing existence.” These CCEs exist under a 30-year-old law intended to allow trade associations to collect money from members for political campaigns without having to list every donor. Today, however, CCEs are created by lawmakers who deny being influenced by big donations from companies and groups with a stake in legislation. While donors legally may contribute $500 to a political campaign in Florida, there’s no limit for CCE contributions.

If lobbyists want to contribute to political campaigns, let them do so directly under the current rules that require disclosure — not through a slush fund that hides donors and provides cover for legislators who ask them for money.

The Gainesville Sun:

A recent look at Florida’s open record violations shows that Florida isn’t as much in the sunshine as one might think. Every year, it seems Florida’s “Government in the Sunshine” grows dimmer.

During one week in January, volunteers from 30 Florida newspapers tested how officials responded to routine requests to inspect public records. Posing as residents, they visited 234 local agencies — from city managers to sheriffs’ offices — in 62 of Florida’s 67 counties.

Surprisingly, only 57 percent of the agencies readily complied with the law.

Around the state, inquiries for public records were met with demands for volunteers’ names, reasons for wanting to view documents and required written request forms. One volunteer was actually threatened with arrest. All such demands were violations of the open records provision of Florida’s Constitution, which was added in 1993.

To be fair, the suspicion raised at many agencies when asked for a document was not always the result of overbearing bureaucracies. In some instances it may simply have been a lack of adequate training for employees who handle requests for public records. But that is a poor excuse for denying Florida citizens their constitutional right.

Our “Government in the Sunshine” laws have served our citizens well. But, as with all our rights, constant vigilance and accountability by both citizens and public servants are needed or the sunshine can quickly grow dim.

Naples Daily News:

How did that humungous high-rise get approved?

How did those tax dollars get blown on paying a public official to quit?

Who paid to put all these politicians into office?

Who is accountable?

Those fundamental questions about local governance — we’ve all asked them after seeing something incredible in the newspaper — come to mind on this annual observance of Sunshine Sunday.

Across the state today there will be reminders that access to public records and public decision-making is more than an assurance that journalists will have ample fodder for juicy stories.

Journalists do a poor job of getting this across to the public: the news media enjoy no level of records access greater than the everyday citizen who seeks copies of property transactions, zoning rules or public agencies’ budgets. Likewise, each obstacle has a ripple effect and sets a dangerous precedent for us all.

Show us a bad decision and we will show you, more often than not, a decision made while bending an open records or open meeting law or following a procedure that does not require case-by-case handling at open meetings.

The only officials who have cause to fear the sunshine of public access are those who are shamed of what they are doing or who do not know what they are doing or who are following a private rather than public agenda. Smart politicians, especially those who resent special-interest pressure, know Sunshine Laws are their best friends. They want you to see the good work they are doing and how wisely they are spending your money.

There is nothing like a dose of sunshine — especially via televised meetings, with plenty of reruns — to straighten up local governance.

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