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The (Panama City) News Herald Unlock the sun To test officials’ willingness to comply with Florida’s open records law, News Herald reporters recently made simple public records requests in seven area counties. They visited county, municipal and school district offices they did not regularly cover as journalists, so they would be treated as anyone else, without special privilege. With rare exceptions for which taxpayers in those jurisdictions should be proud, it was not a good expe-rience. The Sunshine Law asserts that no special privilege is necessary to see public documents, which alone, beyond the re-election rhetoric, speak for the efficacy, efficiency, accountability and honesty of govern-ment. Reporters routinely make such requests because it is their job, but their privilege is no more special than any citizen’s. The investigation’s results, as evident and analyzed elsewhere in today’s newspaper, are disheartening. Often, public employees responded as if they were trying to protect someone in government, or the admini-stration of government itself, from prying eyes. A Lynn Haven City Hall employee seemed to smell rats the reporter did not. “It’s my job to protect my employees,” she said. “I don’t just sling records to anybody who comes in and asks.” Politicians who appreciate to excess this kind of loyalty can be much tempted by perceived immunity from public scrutiny. They risk bringing down with a mighty thud the weight of incompetence and malfea-sance. Such misguided loyalty encourages public servants to secretly oppose and offend the people. Not surprisingly, Cedar Grove failed big. Frankly, we were shocked by how freely offices all over challenged citizens, and how they used illegal intimidation to put citizens in their place. The very impertinence of wanting to see what government was up to, some clerks and officials seemed to think, amounted to innuendo that government was up to no good. Citizens faced a bunker mentality, sorely wanting as public service. Repeatedly asking a citizen’s name and reason for wanting to see public papers, especially if the citizen is expected to provide identification and sign an affidavit, is intimidating — and usually illegal. Yet in Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson and Washington counties, and their municipalities, it was com-mon. So was downright refusal. “You want to see our records?” a Washington County Sheriff’s Office employee responded. “Go get a subpoena. Have a nice day.” A Marianna Police Department officer announced, “People can’t just walk in here and see our reports.” At the Blountstown Police Department, the chief himself intervened, repeatedly asking why someone wanted to see a record, what his name was and where he worked. “We got a right to know why you want to look at our activities,” the chief said. Wrong — chillingly wrong. People who have no right to know whom the police drag in and what hap-pens to them afterward are people who live in a police state. Wrong, too, was the Gulf County school district employee who declared, “I’ve got to know the reason why before I give it to you. We can’t have every John Doe walk in here and look at a personnel file.” Check the law. The Sunshine Law is assaulted with exemptions most every legislative session. However, the clerk or public official who invokes exemption must, by law, be able to cite the law. Numerous recent exemptions help protect legislators’ friends and campaign contributors doing government business, not just to protect the government itself from inquiries. In the News Herald investigation, reporters knew the law. They asked for nothing exempt. They de-served so much more than they received — not as reporters but as citizens.
Reproduced courtesy
of The News Herald. |
