Daytona Beach News-Journal

Keep records open

The explosion of the Internet makes it easier than ever for the public to keep an eye on — and talk about — government.

On blogs and message boards across Florida, residents can compare notes on city commission actions or rant about a vote by a water management district. E-mail lets citizen-advocacy groups get the word out quickly about bills or budget items pending before the Legislature. And across the country, people are forming coalitions to spark political action on a national level.

The basis of all this activism is information. When government records are open and easy to obtain, when government meetings are public and easy to access, citizens are empowered.

Florida has some of the best laws in the nation to assure public access. But many governmental agencies could do more to encourage involvement. The best venue for accessing records and other public information didn’t exist 20 years ago: the Internet. When governments Web-cast meetings or put documents online, residents can monitor them from home.

For a good example of how consumer-friendly government agencies can be, look at the Florida Supreme Courts Web site (flcourts.org). Visitors can track cases, read briefs and check out justice-related statistics with the click of a mouse. They can watch oral arguments before the court, both in current cases and in archives going back to October 1997.

Few residents of Florida have reason — or means — to influence decisions by the states high court. But they can influence decisions made by the Legislature, which does a decent job of putting pending legislation and meeting notices in cyberspace.

Lawmakers are now easy to reach by e-mail, and floor sessions are always broadcast live on the House and Senate Web sites (leg.state.fl.us). The text of every bill, along with vote history, plain-language staff analyses and proposed amendments, appears on-line — though Web-posted versions don’t always keep up with floor action.

Local governments, however, can be much more difficult to track.

Most, if not all, Volusia and Flagler cities have Web sites, though some can be hard to find. (For example, online search engines didn’t find Bunnells site; it required a call to City Hall to find the address.) And most sites list basic government information — contact numbers, meeting dates, department listings.

But not all governmental entities list detailed information. Holly Hill offers audio of past City Commission and advisory board meetings (good) and the full packet of information for this weeks commission meeting (better). Edgewater posts future agendas and past minutes, but no audio and no advisory boards. DeLand offers agendas of the City Commission and brief descriptions, but no backup material. Volusia County, a pioneer in online government, doesn’t do as well posting full information from important subsidiary boards, like the Beach Advisory Board.

Daytona Beach Mayor Glenn Ritchey says he wants to put every document generated by city government on-line so residents can view information at their leisure. If he achieves his goal, city residents win — and other local governments have a new, shining example to follow.

When cities, counties and other government agencies make records access easy, they send a clear message: We have nothing to hide.

Reproduced courtesy of the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
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