The Bradenton Herald

Sunshine Law erosion invites abuses

"All meetings of any board or commission of any state agency or authority or . . . of any county, municipal corporation or political subdivision . . . at which official acts are to be taken are declared to be public meetings open to the public at all times. . . The minutes of a meeting of any such board or commission . . . shall be promptly recorded and such records shall be open to public inspection. . ."

- Opening lines of Florida Statute 286.011, the Government in the Sunshine Law

The language is clear and unequivocal: Florida is committed to open government. It has been for at least a century, with the concept formally enshrined into law in 1967. The Sunshine Law made Florida a leader in open government, and over the years many states have used our statute as a model for their own open-government legislation.

But politicians with agendas that too often serve special interests rather than the public interest have eroded the Sunshine Law over the years - more than 1,000 exemptions are on the books. And at least 40 bills for new exemptions have been filed for the current session of the Legislature, along with proposals to renew 26 other exemptions.

One bill would restrict access to photographs of the remains of crime victims if the images are relevant to a criminal investigation. This bill, filed in response to the Carlie Brucia murder trial in Sarasota, seeks to keep the press from seeing all of the evidence presented at trial, a violation of the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of public trials. It is presented as necessary to protect victims' families from being exploited by unscrupulous people, an understandable concern. But responsible journalists are sensitive to families' emotions; they seek only to evaluate the evidence, not exploit it.

Moreover, this exemption could be detrimental to justice. It was public outrage over photographic evidence - a videotape - of his beating by guards that helped reopen a state investigation into the death of Panama City boot camp inmate Martin Anderson last month.

'Shell' bills proliferate

Another exemption sought would seal the personal records of those seeking permits to carry concealed weapons - including their names. Want to check if an especially beligerent neighbor is armed? Sorry, you wouldn't be able to if this bill passes.

Concern over easy access to court records over the Internet is responsible for another bill that goes too far in sealing public records. It would allow anyone filing court records to black out any information the filer thinks should be exempt from public disclosure. Someone wanting access to the redacted data would have to go to court and prove a legitimate need to see it - the antithesis of "open" records.

Equally worrisome to the First Amendment Foundation, a public records watchdog group, are the "shell" bills - empty entries on the legislative calendar into which legislators can insert stealth Sunshine Law exemptions later in the session. The foundation's list of anti-Sunshine bills contains numerous shell bills whose potential impact can only be guessed at.

On this fifth annual Sunshine Sunday, newspapers around the state and nation call attention to the loss of public access to their government, seeking to raise public awareness toward the erosion of open government at the national and state level. Open-government advocates are focusing on two fronts in the war against secrecy: national security excesses in the post-9/11 world, and privacy hysteria in the cyberspace world. Legitimate concerns surround both issues, but too many elected officials are using them as an excuse to conduct the public's business behind closed doors. The warrantless wiretaps conducted by the Bush administration represent a good example of exploiting terrorism fears to avoid public scrutiny. Alleged terrorism suspects detained indefinitely at Guantanamo, Cuba, and unknown prisons elsewhere in the world have effectively vanished from the earth because normal access to government records has been sealed.

Narrow exceptions OK

Secrecy may begin with pure motives. And indeed narrow exceptions are justified, such as protecting consumers from identity thieves, or crime victims from retaliation for going to police. But excessive secrecy invites an abuse of power, especially when it involves spending the public's money. It's an excuse to hide favoritism in awarding government contracts, to cover up incompetence by government agencies and to grab power by policy-makers.

Some may consider the Sunshine Law merely a service to the news media, giving reporters a powerful tool for snooping. But the press merely serves as the eyes and ears of the public, keeping watch against corruption, mismanagement and waste. And open government is equally important to average citizens, who rely upon public records to check on the discipline record of their doctors, the safety record of their children's day-care center, the competence level of their aged parents' nursing homes.

Just as bright sunshine inhibits mold and mildew in nature, so does it in operation of government. Let Florida's Sunshine Law shine without excessive shading.

Reproduced courtesy of The Bradenton Herald.
Back to top | Return to fsne.org