The Daytona Beach News-Journal
Here's a cartoon by the Daytona Beach News-Journal
cartoonist, Bruce Beattie, for Sunshine Sunday.
How do they get away with it?
State lawmakers know how Floridians feel about public-records access and the open-meetings law. Every time open government shows up on a ballot, it receives thundering support.
But every year, the Florida Legislature quietly takes away a little bit of the oversight that voters demand and expect. They close a few more doors. They hide a few more files.
How do they get away with it?
Lawmakers don’t think you’re paying attention.
There’s no other explanation for the whopping cover-ups passed in recent years, and the ones proposed by legislators this year. Senators and representatives cannot pretend to believe, for example, that Floridians want to be kept in the dark about errors made by their local pharmacists. Yet a bill that would do just that (SB 76) was approved in January by a Senate committee. And lawmakers have already sealed the same information for a number of health-care providers, including doctors and hospitals.
It’s clear who benefits from these exemptions — and who doesn’t. Responsible professionals suffer right along with the public when irresponsible and careless providers are given a cloak of secrecy. Yet their trade organizations keep pushing to expand that veil, and lawmakers keep going along. Too often, they get away with it.
They think you can be misled by scary stories of what might happen if the information remains public.
The Internet has become the monster in the closet for many opponents of access. They wave the flag of identity theft in attempting to seal off any personal information — in some cases, even the names of state employees.
Obviously, there are records that are justifiably private, like health records or personal financial information. But other data is easily obtainable from multiple sources, and there’s no reason to hide it. One example: There’s justification — barely — for state laws that hide the home addresses and phone numbers of police officers, judges and the like. But HB 123/SB 1666 would exempt the e-mail addresses and cell-phone numbers of law enforcement and a host of other governmental employees from public disclosure — which is ludicrous, given that these addresses and phone numbers are paid for by tax dollars and are often printed right on the business cards of the employees. It also hides the billing records — making it easier to divert these public resources to private benefit.
The same holds true for proposed legislation (SB 304) that would hide billing data for city utility customers. Truly private information, like bank-account numbers, is already exempt, and there are no recorded cases of anyone even attempting identity theft from the records that are public. This bill seems more calculated to spare potential embarrassment — as in the recent case of the Jacksonville homeowners caught wasting millions of gallons of water on their palatial lawns. The purpose of these bills is plainly to let them get away with it.
There are worse abuses waiting in the wings.
Take SB 440. In its entirety, the bill’s text reveals only that "It is the intent of the Legislature to create an exemption to public-records requirements." Oh, really? Could the sponsors maybe be a [ital]bit[end ital] more specific?
Maybe not. The Senate, in particular, is crawling with "shell bills" that truly double-cross the notion of public access. Not only are the sponsors trying to lock the public out of records — they’re giving absolutely no notice of which records they want to shut down. The public’s only chance to speak on these bills could come at the committee meeting (if they’re even heard in committee) where the final form of the bill is presented.
These tactics are underhanded and unacceptable. Floridians need to speak up, or these legislators will get away with it.
Sunshine Sunday column by Mark Lane
Bill by bill, Legislature chips away at open government
Last year, by a better than 3-1 margin, Florida voters sent an unmistakable message to the Legislature that they expect government records and public decision-making to be open and stay open.
And the Legislature seems to have listened. Sort of.
This year, legislators have so far filed 30 new exemptions to the public records and open meetings laws. A lot less than last year. A lot more than one would expect after more than 3 million Floridians voted to strengthen open government.
Under the constitutional amendment approved last year, exemptions to the constitutionally guaranteed right of access need at least a two-thirds vote to pass the Legislature. I call it the “Stop Us Before We Exempt Again Amendment.”
Another constitutional amendment, passed by a similar margin 10 years before, also requires a good reason for any exemption, and the exemption to be narrowly tailored to achieve its aim.
These are big hurdles to overcome before taking something out of public view. Big, but not impossibly big.
Actually, because many bills pass by huge margins in the last days of the legislative session without very close scrutiny .€.€. Oh, heck, let’s not be so polite: Because many bills pass by huge margins in the last days of the Legislative session without being read, a two-thirds majority is not all that hard to win.
And legislators have been nothing but creative in coming up with reasons to justify secrecy. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, closing of records and meetings have been routinely justified as necessary to fight terror.
Only a little over a week ago, a Senate committee sat in secret session for the first time in more than a decade. It considered a $1.6 million request for antiterrorism database improvements.
“I feel awkward doing it,” Senate Majority Leader Jim King said. But added security demanded it.
As is often the case, what the Senate bought with security it forfeited in public trust. Is the antiterrorism database the only thing they talked about? Is all this money really going to make anyone safer? Nobody knows. It’s secret.
Fortunately, the House of Representatives has no such provision for secret meetings, so we are not spending millions for secret projects nobody can describe in public.
Not yet.
This meeting wouldn’t seem remarkable in most state governments. But this is Florida. We treat open government the way other places only claim they do.
And people in public life from the Legislature to zoning boards whine about this all the time. It slows everything down. We can’t huddle before the vote. It’s straining the copy machine. They even complain about all the steps they need to go through to get around the laws’ clear intent.
Yes, open government and public records laws are inconvenient for politicians. They are even more inconvenient for people who want to influence politicians.
Too bad. Democracy has a number of very big selling points. Convenience for officeholders, however, is listed nowhere among them.
Each exemption to these laws is a small lack-of-confidence vote in the people. Each one is a statement that folks can’t really be trusted to know how their tax money is spent, how their government is functioning or what data is being gathered at public expense.
Maybe this year, chastened by the huge vote for the Stop Us Before We Exempt Again Amendment, we really could have an exemption-free session. No no-confidence votes. It’s worth imagining.
Mark Lane