The Sun-Herald newspapers

Florida can’t relax leadership on open records

OUR POSITION: Florida ranks near the top when it comes to states that champion public access to government -- an accomplishment that is constantly under attack by those who prefer secrecy.

Florida’s reputation as a state that prefers open government over secrecy is well established, and Gov. Charlie Crist is certainly a friend of the state’s Sunshine Law. Given all that, the public cannot afford to let down its guard as those who advocate restraints on public access continue to chip away at the right to government records.

Crist’s election was good news for those who support open government. The former state attorney general was named the 2005 winner of the Friend of the First Amendment Award by the First Amendment Foundation. One of his early actions as governor was to establish the Office of Open Government within the governor’s office with a goal of ensuring compliance with the state’s Sunshine Law.

Pat Gleason, a passionate advocate of open government, was named a special counsel to the office and JoAnn Carrin, another strong supporter of sunshine in government, is director.

We believe open government is essential to good government. The public’s right to access information on government contracts, potential laws that may impact their lives and to know who has contributed funds to help elect office holders are just a couple of reasons why our Sunshine Law is so valuable.

Still, despite Crist’s best effort and all the good news for lovers of sunshine in government, lawmakers continue to try to chip away at the public’s right to know.

A handful of bills have been introduced in the fledgling legislative session that should concern us all. They include:

• HB 467 will close public access to meetings of a search committee of a public hospital where the selection of candidates or nominees for the position of CEO is discussed. Rep. Larry Cretul, R-Gainesville, is pushing this bill that would allow government to hide records and close meetings relating to who is under consideration to lead our public hospitals.

• HB 1117 would make it a third degree felony to possess “sensitive personal information” without permission. The prohibition does not apply to corporations, but it could apply to any individual, such as a reporter, a spouse or family member, who has possession of another spouse or family member’s personal information. This bill just does not make sense to us.

• HB 1213 says personal identification information should always remain private. It also creates a public records exemption for any records held by an agency that contain personal identificaton information on anyone. If passed, this bill would say that, if a murder is committed in your community, you can’t report the name of the person convicted unless the murderer agrees.

Most of these bills, and others, target specific exceptions that irritate special interest groups.

We believe legislators have more important issues to tackle in Tallahassee than trying to find ways to get around our Sunshine Law.

Reproduced courtesy of the Sun-Herald newspapers.
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