FSNE - Sunshine Sunday

Local officials and government employees have had to become well-educated in how to meet the sometimes complex requirements of public records and Sunshine Laws.

Sunshine Laws help the media and public make sure that government is doing what it's supposed to do. Today is known as “Sunshine Sunday,” an effort by Florida newspapers to make the public aware of open goverrnment laws and the attempts to narrow them.

Local officials the Lake City Reporter spoke with this week said there have been few local violations of these laws. They said they do well in meeting state and federal statutes guaranteeing public access.

Officials also agreed that it is necessary for the laws to exist to ensure public access to records and meetings, particularly when it involves decisions that directly affect the public.

However, each said there are some cases when information should be withheld from the public.

“For the most part I think it’s a good thing, but there are times you are in sensitive negotiations such as the purchase of property,” City Councilman George Ward said.

In those cases, Ward said because of Sunshine Laws, bodies of government like City Council have to discuss negotiations with private industry in an open meeting, which could affect what the city pays for services or real estate.

“It’s not always comfortable,” Ward said. “But we are not elected to be comfortable. We need to do what we need to do to uphold the law of the state and the government, and I think Council does well with that.”

City Manager Joe Cone, who has been in public administration for more than 30 years (before many of the modern public records laws were written), said he believes the right to public access is necessary. But he said it’s also necessary for a person to help government meet their records requests.

“I think it’s a good idea, but the only problem that I’ve encountered in my 30-something years is that sometimes people are not sure exactly what they want and when you try to get them to define what it is specifically they want, they end up thinking you are questioning their right to have the information, which is not the case at all,” Cone said.

Giving a recent example of the need to be specific, he said an insurance company sought public records about the city’s contract with an engineering firm. Cone said what the insurance company employee initially requested filled two boxes.

Because Cone’s staff said it would likely take three days to make the copies to fulfill that request, Cone said he called the employee back and asked what the exact records she needed on the engineering firm.

“I sent her four pages, and she was very grateful,” Cone said. “It helped them, and it helped us too.”

Like Ward, Cone also said while there are instances when Sunshine Laws require the city to discuss sensitive issues publicly, law still allows matters regarding open litigation and contract negotiations with labor unions to be done privately.

He said it also was important to have the amendments to public records laws that prevented Social Security numbers and medical information from being released.

With law enforcement records such as arrest reports and incident reports containing a large amount of personal information, Columbia County Sheriff Bill Gootee said his agency has to be custodians of large amounts of sensitive information.

While he said it is important to “err on the side of caution,” particularly when dealing with records that have sensitive information about victims of crimes, Gootee said in his opinion that the “biggest problem” with public records law is people’s personal agenda when making records requests.

If it is a member of the press seeking to do a story and needs the records, he said he understands why they may need them. However, he said if a person just comes in off the street and wants to see all of his employee’s salaries, for example, “that takes away from taxpayers to have to do that,” Gootee said.

Still, he said his department attempts to meet the records request of any citizen in a timely manner, as long as it does not corrupt an ongoing investigation or internal investigation or reveal the names of the officers or their families.

From a judicial perspective, Circuit Judge Vernon Douglas, who has heard at least one case of alleged Sunshine Law violations in recent years, said the right to public access benefits everyone.

“I think any time you remove the appearance of secrecy and open up the process to the understanding of all concerned, it gives the courts a greater opportunity to let people understand the process of justice,” Douglas said. “And so the more light we put on it, the more understanding that people have. Then the more we can take input and make changes and grow with the understanding of society.”

Douglas said the prosecution of Sunshine Law violations has rarely come before his judgment.

“It appears to me from my knowledge that everyone (locally) or every organization is in compliance.”

He said in the judicial system, it makes his job as a judge much easier and more effective when all parties involved have access to all facts in a given case.

And within local government, Douglas said, “I don’t think anyone will dispute it has made a difference, in my opinion, for the better.”

He said because the public has access to records and open meetings such as City Council and County Commission, “the discussions have a greater free flow of debate between the board members and the community in open meetings, as it should be.”

But Douglas also said Sunshine and public record laws are somewhat fluid, he said the laws are in a “constant state of improvement.”

In some cases, he said public record laws need to provide for the omission of certain information from records in the interest of public safety. For example, Douglas said in the cases of judges, removing information such as their personal phone numbers and where their children attend school, would be beneficial to their safety.

“But outside of that,” he said, “there should be a free flow of information.”

County Manager Dale Williams said he believes the county fully complies with public records and Sunshine Laws and attempts to train its staff to know what is and isn’t available for public disclosure. “Truthfully we have a bigger problem not always knowing what is and isn’t public record,” Williams said.

He said more care is required now when personal records are released to the public.

“All of it is part of our regular training, and I think my staff does a good job with it,” Williams said. “I think we honor it in both the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.”

As a person and as county manager, he said he has “no problem” with the requirements of public record and Sunshine Law.

When county meetings are done at the staff level he said the county still allows public access, unless it is a sensitive personal issue.

“Even when it’s not required we tend to be real flexible,” Williams said. Though 15-20 years ago, he said he would frequently get complaints from people saying they were wrongly denied access to meetings or public records, or commissioners who didn’t see why certain meetings had to be open.

“I can’t even remember the last time that I got one,” Williams said. “I just kind of hope we are beyond any issues with that,” he said. “I think they’ve just come to accept it, this is they way it is, this is the way that it’s going to be, so get used to it and move on.”

Reproduced courtesy of the Lake City Reporter.