FSNE - Sunshine Sunday

They could be locked out of meetings where their tax rates are set, or construction proposals for their neighborhoods are approved, or other actions are taken that affect their lives and property.

Cut off from government records, they couldn't be sure of how their hard-earned tax dollars are being spent. They could be denied a wide range of valuable health, safety and consumer information collected at their expense — from inspection reports for day-care centers to the addresses of convicted sex offenders to the disciplinary records of doctors to reams of other useful facts and figures.

No one in the Florida Legislature would dare call for repealing outright the public's constitutional right to government in the sunshine. But some lawmakers keep trying to chip away at this pillar of Florida's democracy.

Today, the third annual Sunshine Sunday in Florida, the Orlando Sentinel joins newspapers across the state in urging all lawmakers to respect and defend this cherished constitutional right.

Open government means more accountable and efficient government. It encourages public participation and scrutiny that lead to better policy.

Last year, for example, the Sentinel found by reviewing public records that hundreds of mentally disabled adults in state-licensed group homes lacked legal guardians. Those findings led a state task force to urge that guardians be appointed.

Yet in recent years, lawmakers have played on the public's fears of terrorists and identity thieves to seek scores of exceptions to open meetings or records laws. Some exceptions, such as concealing anti-terrorism plans or Social Security numbers, make sense. But many proposed exceptions have had nothing to do with protecting the public and everything to do with kow-towing to powerful politicians or special interests.

This year, lawmakers have proposed nearly 60 exceptions. Some of these proposals mock the constitutional requirement that any exceptions meet a “public necessity,” and that they be “as narrowly tailored as possible.”

A House-passed proposal would conceal records in nine categories from the Florida Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute, a pet project of House Speaker Johnnie Byrd. Lawmakers are set to give the center $15 million. If this proposal passes the Senate and becomes law, citizens won't be able to keep track of their investment.

Another House-passed proposal would bar local law-enforcement agencies from keeping records of firearms purchases after 60 days — essentially denying access to records by eliminating them. The National Rifle Association supports this bad idea, but it would deny local law-enforcement agencies an efficient way of tracking guns sold or pawned at pawn shops. Such records have helped police capture criminals and protect officers responding to calls.

Lawmakers who are too quick to close government meetings or records don't just hurt the public. They hurt themselves by raising suspicions about government, discouraging citizen participation and undermining public confidence.

But Floridians would be foolish to count on lawmakers to do the right and wise thing. Citizens who value their constitutional right to know about their government need to make their views known to their hometown representatives and senators, as well as to key lawmakers listed below.

Citizens also need to contact Gov. Jeb Bush, who decides whether a bill passed by the Legislature becomes law. Mr. Bush has never vetoed a bill closing public meetings or records.

The constitutional right to open government is too precious to be chipped away.

Keeping Florida’s government open

Who to contact:

House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, (850) 488-0807 or speakerbyrd@myfloridahouse.com

Chairwoman Holly Benson of the House Committee on State Administration, (850) 488-0895 or benson.holly@myfloridahouse.com

Chairman Allan Bense of the House Committee on Procedures, (850) 488-9696 or bense.allan@myfloridahouse.com

Senate President Jim King, (850) 487-5030 or king.james.web@flsenate.gov

Chairman Tom Lee of the Senate Committee on Rules, (850) 487-5072 or lee.tom.web@flsenate.gov

Chairman Stephen Wise of the Senate Committee on Governmental Oversight and Productivity, (850) 487-5027 or wise.stephen.web@flsenate.gov

Gov. Jeb Bush, 850/488-4441 or jeb.bush@myflorida.com

Where to find information about legislative proposals:

First Amendment Foundation, www.floridafaf.org

Second editorial - return to first editorial

It's important for Florida lawmakers to stand against pointless or pernicious exceptions to open meetings and records laws, but there's more for them to do to safeguard the state's heritage of government in the sunshine.

A recent survey shows that lawmakers also would be wise to mandate training in open-government requirements for employees with that responsibility.

In the January survey, more than 40 percent of local and state government agencies violated open-records requirements. Employees didn't understand their obligations, or weren't willing to meet them. They made unlawful demands of volunteers requesting public records, or lied about the availability or existence of records.

Florida requires newly elected public officials to take open-records training, but there is no requirement for front-line employees who deal with the public. Organizations are ready and willing to provide such training.

Leaving such training voluntary, rather than making it mandatory, would be a mistake. Earlier this year, Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar invited 182 elected and appointed government officials from his district, along with any of their interested staff, to attend a three-hour seminar on open government. Fewer than half accepted, even though Mr. Lamar stressed that his office takes complaints of sunshine-law violations seriously and would “investigate them appropriately.”

Open-government guarantees for Floridians are only as good as the public employees responsible for fulfilling them.