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Naples Daily News Sunshine Sunday — a day when newspapers in Florida and the rest of the country join forces to get out the good word about laws that let the sun shine in on government. Oh sure, some readers might think. Journalists just want to make sure they have something to write about. Think again. Sunshine Sunday is about making sure the public has access to the public’s business. That includes how the public’s tax dollars are spent, how the public’s property is zoned, how the public’s laws are being enforced, and a lot more. Yet, the public’s right to know is not cast in stone. It is only as strong as the laws comprising its foundation, and those laws are only as strong as politicians want them to be. They are prone to constant challenge via policy as well as day-to-day practice, i.e., by the bureaucrat who keeps a report in his or her computer until the day before a big meeting so it does not go public in time for the public to learn about it and speak up. Smart officials, who embrace the true meaning of “public servants,” insist on operating in the sunshine. They know public access is the best insurance against rule by special interests. They know they should not be doing anything they would not want to someday see in the newspaper. Put more positively, they want the public to see their good work in progress. Thank goodness Southwest Floridians have a champion in Florida Rep. Dudley Goodlette of open records and open meetings. He understands that when there is bad policy afoot for the public interest, there usually is a drawn shade or a cut corner involved. There are plenty of examples of government operating in less than optimum sunshine littering the region’s landscape over the past several years. Though some did not break the letter of open government laws, they certainly violated their spirit. Estero’s unionized firefighting force was dismissed in a secretive, late-night fire board session only eight years ago. Just last year, the Collier County School Board convened at a bank rather than its grand headquarters equipped with live TV cameras. Topic A for that meeting — aptly likened by school officials as a retreat — was bolstering trust. Today there is a fresh example of the need for government sunshine, ripped from the headlines of the dark days of Summer 2004, when four hurricanes ravaged our state. Questions linger about the distribution of federal emergency dollars. Did they all go to the suffering and needy? Why did millions go to the Miami area, which was spared major wrath? With federal officials stonewalling, four Florida newspapers based in badly damaged areas are invoking the Freedom of Information Act to learn and report the truth to the public. What we said in an editorial this time last year holds true today: Sunshine Laws shed light when we ask, How did that humongous 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? Another grass-roots point is important to keep in mind. Sunshine Laws give the news media no special leverage; we have the same access to records and meeting that you do. Gains and setbacks are felt across the board. In a very real way, the media and the public are all in this together. Sunshine Sunday is a big deal. It highlights a bedrock of democracy that we exercise every day of the year. We have to keep it strong — to shed light on those who prefer to maneuver in the shadows and keep you in the dark.
Reproduced courtesy of Naples Daily News. |
