Online Sunshine

by: meowmissy

Fri Jun 13, 2008 at 13:42:57 PM EDT

Democracy is government by the people, for the people and of the people.  It should be open to the people.  The First Amendment Foundation is an organization working to protect and advance free speach and open government in Florida.  Unfortunately, our sunshine laws are still not applied evenly or fairly. Together, we can make a change.

One visit to the website of the Florida Legislature and you'll notice that its branded with the label "online sunshine" - a homage to Florida's sunshine laws, specifically the passage of a constitutional amendment in 1992 granting the public access to records and meetings of state and local government.

There is a nifty little loophole - the legislature can decide for itself that certain records and meetings are exempt.

Despite the occassional pat on the back to the Legislature for being more retrained in passing exemptions to the sunshine laws, after all, they only passed three this year - the fact still remains that our legislature is not as open to the people as it should be.

This past March when we celebrated "Sunshine Week", I noted in a diary a number of Florida newspapers making the same point.

If anyone knows the lack of openness of our Florida Legislature it would most certainly be a legislator. Representative Dan Gelber says it best on his blog with these two points:

First, the legislature has largely exempted themselves from much of Florida's sunshine laws, and has increasingly exploited that exemption. Too many decisions and negotiations are made without a single reporter present. Every editorial board in the state should demand much needed changes in the practice of the legislature. In a letter and testimony before the Governor's Commission on Open Government I recommended five easy changes the legislature could adopt that would remedy much of our shortcomings. (see "Let the Sunshine In" posted 2/14/08) If the legislature refuses to govern itself, then you should lead a campaign with citizen groups to bring the Florida legislature under the full sweep of the Sunshine Law in exactly the same manner that local officials are required to comply. It is not easier to govern in the sunshine, but it is most definitely better.

Second, having world class sunshine laws doesn't do any good if no one is there to watch. I understand that in tough times fiscal pressures on news organizations are the same as on state government. Cuts have to be made. But I voted against the state budget cuts because I believed there were other ways than to cut core service in education and health care. And nearly every editorial board in Florida agreed. Similarly, I worry that as your most veteran and savvy reporters accept early retirement and buy outs, and your staffing is curtailed, that ultimately it will be the core service of reporting about government that will suffer.