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Palm Beach Post
Sunshine Sunday
The latest tactic is to not call them exemptions to Florida's open-government laws. Legislators now are saying, for example, that Floridians can't even compile certain public records, that if you have them, you must destroy them, and that if you don't, well, there's a small fine - $5 million.
Only public scrutiny has kept almost all of the roughly 300 wrongheaded exemptions proposed in the past two years from becoming law. Yet 50 new ones were proposed in the weeks before the 2004 legislative session began. Of the roughly 100 bills filed in the House and Senate, nearly two-thirds seek to dodge the state's exemplary Government-in-the-Sunshine Laws.
Consider the $5 million winner that passed the House overwhelmingly, over the objection of lawmakers who said it would hamper the ability of police to solve crimes. That bill would block law-enforcement agencies from using pawnshop records to compile gun-owner databases. The bill's supporters don't consider it to be an exemption, but it would be an exemption through its effect.
Another would allow law-enforcement agencies to expunge arrest records if they determine that the arrest was a mistake. There are two problems. What if, say, police unknowingly arrest the mayor's son, then get a call from the mayor? They could hide their, um, "mistake." Also, the exemption would give cover to police officers who have histories of unwarranted arrests. "It's like the Florida Department of Law Enforcement relief act," said Barbara Petersen, president of the not-for-profit First Amendment Foundation.
Another exemption forced through the House by Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, would prevent taxpayers from knowing even the salaries they are paying at the $15 million Alzheimer's research center to be named after his late father. The center's board also would be able to meet in secrecy.
The increasing assault on the Florida public's right to know what government is doing is consistent with a disturbing national trend. Lawmakers are making it more difficult to expose misconduct by public officials, and corporations, too, are dodging scrutiny, in the name of national security.
This year in Tallahassee, only several so-called "shell bills" - blank slates on which the worst legislation sometimes appears during the waning days - have been filed specifically related to exemptions. Unlike in recent years, there is none to prevent access to public utility records or bury medical mistakes. But it's still early. Moreover, said Ms. Petersen, "It's disconcerting to see the assault year after year, and in that context, 43 percent of the agencies surveyed failed to comply with public records requirements. Put those two together, and it is cause for concern."
The continuing threat is among the reasons for the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors' third annual statewide Sunshine Sunday campaign today, seeking to help fill a gap that Ms. Petersen called the "lack of advocates. There's nobody standing up and shouting, 'Protect public access.' " So we are, along with other organizations and Floridians who again will have to stare down their employees.