Northwest Florida Daily News

by Patrick Rice, editor

Today is the first day of Sunshine Week, when the American Society of Newspaper Editors urges newspapers to champion open government and the people’s right to know.

It doesn’t take much urging for newspaper editors to talk about this subject.

Open government is at the core of democracy. You can’t have a democracy without allowing the people to know what the government is doing when it creates laws and makes spending decisions.

I have worked as a reporter and an editor in several different states. I have had many opportunities to meet officials who were perfectly willing to use their power to keep me — and other members of the public — from examining records that were clearly public.

One time a lawyer for a college athletic foundation laughed at me after he told me I couldn’t examine the foundation’s financial records.

A couple of months later, that state’s attorney general ruled that those records were public. The foundation’s attorney turned the records over to me without a laugh. Or even a smile.

Here’s some good news: For the most part, government officials in Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties support open government. In fact, government officials here sometimes go out of their way to shine light on their operations — even when doing so won’t necessarily make them look good.

About this time last year, Okaloosa-Walton College was in the middle of the Mattie Kelly case. The college was facing a court battle over its decision to sell waterfront land Ms. Kelly had willed to the college. The college was also facing a battle in the court of public opinion.

In the middle of all that, the Daily News began questioning whether the meeting at which the college’s foundation decided to sell the Mattie Kelly land should have been open to the public. Like other college foundations in Florida, OWC officials had always thought foundation meetings weren’t subject to the state’s Sunshine Law. But First Amendment lawyers the Daily News contacted said the meetings should’ve been open.

OWC officials could have tried to keep the meetings closed to the public, but they didn’t.

“We’re going to go full-fledge” in notifying the public about foundation meetings, OWC President Bob Richburg said. “We’re not a secret group of people.”

Later, a state attorney general’s opinion held that college foundation meetings should be open to the public. But give Richburg credit for opening OWC’s foundation meetings before the attorney general even got involved.

Here’s a more recent example: A few weeks ago, Daily News reporter Amy Leigh Womack made a sizable records request to Okaloosa County’s Emergency Medical Services department. She needed the records to determine how long it takes ambulances to reach people who need one. It was a subject about which Amy Leigh had been gathering information for almost two years.

Initially, county officials planned to charge the Daily News hundreds of dollars for the records. But county officials eventually — and at our request — provided the records to the newspaper at no cost after we pointed out that Amy Leigh’s reporting efforts were in the public’s interest.

Her story, published March 5, pointed out that ambulances don’t always arrive within EMS’s eight-minute goal. The story’s facts also indicated fast-growing Okaloosa County may have a very real need for more ambulances.

I mention these examples to make the point that, by and large, area government officials do not actively work to keep the public from knowing.

That doesn’t mean the public shouldn’t know even more.

In particular, it troubles me when government officials involved in economic development refuse to let the public know what sorts of tax breaks and other deals they’re contemplating for companies interested in moving to Northwest Florida. The claim is always that secrecy — which is allowed by state law — gives us some competitive advantage. But it seems the only people kept in the dark are the taxpayers who could end up footing the bill for any deals being cut.

The fact that area government officials generally are open also does not mean the public shouldn’t vigilantly protect the state’s Sunshine Law.

The Legislature is in session, which pretty much guarantees that some legislator from somewhere will introduce some bill in an effort to diminish the public’s right to know.

Applaud and support those officials who work to help you find out how government works.

And for those officials who obstruct your right to know, remember them the next time you vote.

Patrick Rice is editor of the Daily News. He can be reached at patrickr@nwfdailynews.com. Or write to him at the Northwest Florida Daily News; 200 Racetrack Road N.W.; P.O. Box 2949; Fort Walton Beach, FL 32549. His phone number is (850) 863-1111, ext. 400.

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