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Miami Herald
Sunshine the best remedy for government's secrecy
When the Florida Senate decided that it was necessary to go into a secret session to deal with "sensitive'' issues, Miami Herald political writer John McDermott, who was watching the proceedings from the press booth, felt his temper boil. Despite the order to clear the galleries of all onlookers, John refused to budge.
An equally stubborn Senate president sent police to carry out his order that no outsiders be around to witness the deliberations. But that would prove to be a costly mistake for the lawmaker -- and a turning point in Florida history.
The following morning, news- papers across the state published detailed accounts of burly bailiffs carrying McDermott and three other reporters out of the chamber. The ensuing outcry provided the impetus for Florida's famous Government in the Sunshine law. Now, in all but the rarest circum- stances (mostly confined to law enforcement), public meetings and public documents are open for everyone to see.
McDermott's famous sit-down strike in the Florida Senate occurred nearly four decades ago.
In those intervening years, you and I have come to take for granted that we will enjoy an unfettered flow of free information from our local and state governments.
And how does this matter?
In recent months Herald reporters have used public records to produce a hard-hitting series detailing how public dollars were being squandered by the local school district. The records proved that insider dealing and shoddy business practices meant that mil- lions of dollars that should have gone into educating our children instead went to favored contractors or simply down the drain.
Another series found that state judges and prosecutors were abusing a state law designed to give first offenders a one-time break from going to jail. Instead, according to public records, repeat felons -- including pornographers and child molesters -- were skipping through court- rooms without accumulating a single blemish on their résumés.
Our reporters also used records to trace the history of every bullet fired by Miami police officers to prove that just a handful of cops were responsible for an inordinate number of shootings, some killing innocent bystanders. This led to an overhaul of police-training procedures that may now be saving lives.
And you may recall that in the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election, decided by George W. Bush's 537 vote victory in Florida, The Herald -- backed by Knight-Ridder -- analyzed every disputed ballot, more than 60,000 in all. How did we get them? We sued in each of the state's 67 counties for the right to review them under Florida's public-records law. The subsequent stories about The Herald's ballot review made inter- national news as well as history.
These are just a few examples to make the larger point that quality government rests in part on the ability of every Floridian to know what our governmental agencies are doing.
But preserving this access remains a constant challenge, particularly given today's climate. Many citizens are concerned that easily accessed public records leave them vulnerable to invasions of their privacy. Others argue that terrorists can use such records to plot attacks.
We're mindful of these concerns. But too many politicians -- particularly state legislators -- have been eager to try to take advantage of such issues to turn back to the bad -old days when back-room dealing was the norm.
In the current Legislative session alone, more than five -dozen bills have been filed that would carve out exemptions to Florida's public-records' law. In other words, they would they'd shield something from us that's now avail- able.
Of course, some of these exemptions are reasonable -- protecting the privacy of law-enforcement officers; providing secrecy to publicly funded research so it won't be stolen by competitors; safeguarding the identity of witnesses;, and so forth. But many are designed simply to keep you and me from becoming aware of things that, if known, would embarrass the perpetrators.
To stymie these venal efforts, The Herald joins today with other Florida news media and the Florida First Amendment Foundation to celebrate Sunshine Sunday. This is a day set aside to remind Floridians of the importance to quality government of preserving the free flow of public information.
Secrecy can be toxic to government and the citizenry. Actions taken in closed council chambers are easily corrupted and rarely corrected.
But there is an effective disinfectant: Sunshine. Let's make sure that we don't let it dim.