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The Ledger, Lakeland
Keeping Florida's 'Sunshine' Legacy
Government in the Sunshine is a concept pioneered by Florida in the 20th Century. It has worked well for the public, if not always for some public officeholders, but the carrying on the idea of open government requires -- like freedom itself -- eternal vigilance in the 21st Century.
Florida put its Public Records Law on the statute books 95 years ago. What specific events prompted the law have been lost in the passage of almost a century, but it apparently wasn't considered controversial at the time.
But what the 1909 law did was breathtaking in its scope. It said, for the first time, that no state, county or municipal government could keep its records closed to public inspection. The only exceptions had to be specifically spelled out in the statute books. It took a number of years, but the courts eventually ruled that the law meant exactly what it said -- regardless of the objections that government officials might raise.
But the Public Records Law didn't address the issue of what journalists came to refer to as "mole hole government." That referred to secret meetings of governmental bodies. For two-thirds of the 20th Century, it was common for governing boards to meet -- with or without public notice, often behind locked doors. Only later would the public learn what decisions had been made. The taxpayers could only speculate about what kinds of deals were made and at what cost. Corruption flourished in that kind of atmosphere.
A malapportioned Legislature ensured the the perpetuation of that atmosphere until the 1960s, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that legislative districts must be drawn according to population rather than county boundaries -- "people, not pine trees." When the smoke cleared, lawmakers from urban areas had replaced the old, rural-dominated legislators. In 1967, the first Legislature elected after reapportionment enacted the Government in the Sunshine Law.
The sunshine law required that meetings of decision-making boards -- everything from the governor and state Cabinet to the smallest mosquito control board -- be open to the public at all times, with very few exceptions. As with the Public Records Law, it took several definitive decisions from the state Supreme Court before the sunshine law was fully enforceable.
It made a big difference in the way government at the state and local levels operated. No longer were the public and news media excluded from meetings in which matters of public policy were discussed or acted upon. The result was a much higher level of accountability.
In 1992, Florida voters approved an amendment to the Florida Constitution to "chisel in stone" the open government laws and to require that any changes made by the Legislature be fully justifiable. Unfortunately, the constitutional amendment only made lawmakers more creative in trying to pass exemptions. Dozens of such exemptions -- seemingly minor individually but dangerous in aggregate -- are proposed every session, with a few passing each time.
Some of the exemptions are, in fact, justified on grounds of personal privacy, ongoing investigations and other reasons. But many are proposed only for the convenience of public officials and employees or for the benefit of powerful special-interest groups.
That's why, for the past three years, the news media across the state have observed "Sunshine Sunday" -- today -- which is set aside to educate the public about the open government laws and the importance of making as few changes in them as possible.
In the end, open government isn't only for the news media, although it makes our jobs easier. The real beneficiary is the general public. Any citizen has the same right to view public records or attend public meetings as any news reporter or editor. If that right is abridged, we all suffer.
Open government is a legacy from 20th Century Florida. It's our responsibility to maintain it for future generations.