Two get top grades in fight for open records

Only two state legislators — both from South Florida — received the highest grade for safeguarding Florida’s public records this year, according to an analysis by the Florida Society of News Editors and the First Amendment Foundation.

State Rep. Joe Geller, DAventura, was not happy about it.

“Oh, come on. I want at least an A-minus,” said Geller, who, along with state Rep. Lori Berman, DLantana, was the only lawmaker to receive a B-plus. “I think I should get bonus points.”

“Both of us are attorneys, and I think that informs our protecting our civil liberties,” Berman said. “I’ve always been a very strong supporter of the First Amendment Foundation and what they believe in because of the transparency issues in the Legislature. I believe it’s important for people to know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.”

None of the 160 legislators got an A. Of the other 50 state representatives and senators who represent some portion of South Florida, from Monroe to Palm Beach County, the median score was a Dplus.

Democrats and senators tended to score higher than Republicans and representatives. The highest score for a South Florida Republican was a C, achieved by both state Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, and Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, who represents part of northern Palm Beach County.

No lawmaker in the past legislative session, which took place in March and April, was as vocal about standing with the First Amendment Foundation as Geller.

Almost every time a new exemption to the state’s public records or open meetings laws came up, Geller took up his microphone on the House floor to tell his fellow members of the House where the foundation stood on the issue. Geller’s defense of open government law was so routine that it became the butt of jokes.

“Rep. [Clay] Ingram gave me a pretty good ribbing when I spoke on some unrelated bill and he stood up and said I want to know how the First Amendment Foundation stands on this,” Geller recalled.

Geller’s voting record on open government laws this session shows that, like the voting record of Berman, he voted with the First Amendment Foundation on every issue except one — shielding the arrest records of people who are found innocent in court. That bill passed unanimously through both chambers.

“To have it follow you around when you were wrongfully charged, it just doesn’t make sense,” Geller said. “To say you should be haunted by a false arrest, maybe the First Amendment Foundation didn’t take a careful enough look there.”

The foundation objected to such records being automatically sealed rather than there being an expungement process. The new law could result in millions of records being shifted out of the public eye.

“On that issue, I know that there’s been a huge problem with people having their records put online and not having any valid way to get the records expunged,” Berman said. “We always look at the reason the First Amendment Foundation does or does not support a public records exemption, but I don’t always agree with them.”

But Geller and Berman also took a few votes that were deeply unpopular. They, along with state Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, were the only House members to vote against a bill that protects the identity of witnesses of murders. The foundation opposed the bill because its statement of necessity — a legal reasoning required for public records exemptions — was based on hypotheticals rather than real-world occurrences.

“Three of us voted against that bill to shield the identity of murder witnesses. Three. And there were good reasons to [vote for] it, but there were better reasons not to,” Geller said. “I think it kind of doesn’t serve the public interest to say that not one legislator was willing to stand up enough on these issues to get an A grade.”

The lowest score among South Florida lawmakers was a D-minus, set by freshman state Rep. Rick Roth, R-Loxahatchee. He lost a lot of points for cosponsoring a defeated bill that would have gutted the state’s open meeting law by allowing two city or county commission members to meet privately.

The scoring system developed by the Florida Society of News Editors assigned points for legislators’ voting history on a set of bills deemed important to open government law by the First Amendment Foundation. Lawmakers gained or lost three points for a floor vote, seven points for cosponsoring a bill and 10 points for sponsoring a bill on the list. Legislators received bonus points for talking with the foundation about the bill. A perfectly neutral legislator would get a C.