Legislators’ grades to reveal record on open government

How quickly can the public’s right to government information be eroded?

A committee once spent 45 minutes debating whether a cheerleader should legally be considered an athlete, then passed nine exemptions to the state law in less than a minute, said Barbara Petersen, president of Florida’s First Amendment Foundation.

Legislators’ decisions will face more scrutiny this spring, when a scoring system drafted by Petersen will begin evaluating their support for government openness. She said the public doesn’t understand how 1,119 exemptions to the state’s Sunshine Law can affect them, and legislators aren’t always aware of all the implications either as they vote.

“We have legislators who profess to support open government, but when push comes to shove, they take action that’s contrary to the public ability to oversee its government and hold it accountable,” Petersen said.

The scoring system for the Florida Society of News Editors will assign points for about 10 critical government openness bills this legislative session.

Legislators will get three points for a floor vote, seven points for co-sponsoring a bill and 10 points for sponsoring a bill that’s on the list. Votes against openness will lose points; votes for openness gain points. Legislators can also get a bonus point for communicating with the foundation about the bill. The scores ultimately will be compared to the session’s most extreme legislator — good or bad — and turned into standard letter grades for comparison. A perfectly neutral legislator will get a C.

Petersen said that criteria is as objective as it can be. The subjective part is in choosing which bills to criticize. Petersen said she’s looking for the most substantive, far-reaching bills. Other bills, such as the commonly introduced legislation to conceal addresses of groups of people, will not be on the list, she said.

A shoe-in for Petersen’s list: A revised proposal by Sen. Greg Steube of Sarasota, who would make attorney’s fees optional in lawsuits that a government agency loses.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Dave Kerner, who served four years in the Florida House of Representatives, said First Amendment Foundation’s selection of bills may make the scorecard too subjective. However, the scorecard can help drive the public to understand more of what the Legislature does with open records.

“I’d encourage citizens to look at the substance of the bills before relying on a subjective score,” said Kerner, a Democrat.

Petersen wants legislators to look more closely at the substance of the bills before voting on them and think of the implications for government sunshine.