Want open government? Protect Florida’s Sunshine Law from exemptions

Once upon a time — and for many this will sound like a fairytale — anybody could walk into a government office in Florida, ask and examine legislative bills, correspondence or documents. That was the power of Florida’s Government in the Sunshine Law. It was its strength that made it a national model for open government and public access.

It’s a far bleaker picture today, as many in government now see public access as less a law than an affront. The light dims on Florida’s landmark Sunshine Law that ensured easy public access to information regarding how state and local government decisions are made and how taxpayer money is spent. The law keeps getting weakened by state government officials who put their own self-interest ahead of the public’s.

There are more than 1,100 public records law exemptions and that number is only growing. Exemptions from Marsy’s Law, which was sold as protection for crime victims but is now used to shield police misconduct, to one that makes sure no one will ever know how and/or who uses the tax-funded state plane or where actually it goes. And who really benefits from an exemption regarding people who adopt pets from government-run animal shelters?

It’s too easy to believe that a diminished Sunshine Law is simply a problem for the news media. Nothing is further from the truth. The Sunshine Law benefits everyone, from the parent concerned about their kids’ schooling to the developer wondering if the bid they submitted for a government contract received a fair shake.

The problem now is that the onus is on us, all of us, to make sure we have access.

Public records exemptions and similar decisions by state and local governments shouldn’t be used to keep the public from knowing how tax dollars are spent, or how well their state and local governments operate. The public still has a right to know. The ongoing evisceration of Florida’s open government laws must end — now.

Florida was ahead of its time when it came to making government records available to the public. The public first obtained the legislated right to inspect public documents back in 1909.

A similar law regarding public meetings passed in 1967. The law put Florida in the forefront of open government, and thanks to the work of then-Sen. Lawton Chiles, it became a model to shape a federal version that was signed into law in 1976 by President Gerald Ford. In 1992, voters in Florida took the additional step of putting both laws into the state constitution.

Unfortunately, the public’s zeal to make open government a constitutional right apparently was a bridge too far. So much transparency prompted a slow but persistent deluge of public records exemptions from the Florida Legislature, the Florida Supreme Court and the public. The voters noticed and in 2002 again amended the Florida Constitution to strengthen the law by requiring a super-majority vote before an exemption is added or renewed.

In two decades, leadership in state government changed and so has its devotion to the public’s right to know. If you need an example, look at Florida’s chief executive, Gov. Ron DeSantis. Last year, he set the behind-closed-doors tone by signing not one but two bills into law out of public view — SB 300, the six-week abortion ban, and HB 543, which allows individuals to forego getting a permit to carry a gun.

The number of exemptions grew, too. An exemption here, an exemption there, it didn’t take long before the individual exemptions became a more ominous trend. With so many exemptions, and the need to evaluate each request from the public against them, government agencies can settle on implicitly denying access. Administrators don’t have to say ‘no’ when astronomical costs and bureaucratic delay produce the same results.

Beginning Sunday through March 16, Sunshine Week is a national collaboration of civic and community watchdogs, libraries, schools and news organizations coming together to appreciate the law and spread understanding that government operates best when it operates in the open, for all to see.

As we said, the onus is on us to let our elected officials know the Sunshine Law still has meaning, and it needs to preserved, if not strengthened.