EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

March 15 Barre-Montpelier Times Argus (Vt.)

Sunshine Laws

Too many times each year, our journalists have to call out elected officials for being in violation of the state’s open meeting and open records laws. On a few of those occasions, we have had to educate the violators with letters citing statute, and even reaching out to town attorneys to underscore our concerns about lack of transparency and shadow government decision-making. It is far too common an exercise. …

This week is Sunshine Week, which was launched in 2005 by the American Society of News Editors — now News Leaders Association — and has grown into an enduring initiative to promote open government.

It is designed to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants usually include news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofit organizations, schools and individuals concerned about the public’s right to know. …

According to the American Presidency Project, Proclamation 5447: Freedom of Information Day, 1986, “March 16 is the anniversary of the birth of James Madison, our fourth president and one of the principal figures in the Constitutional Convention. Madison eloquently expressed the guarantees in the Bill of Rights, in particular in the freedoms of religion, speech and of the press protected by the First Amendment. He understood the value of information in a democratic society, as well as the importance of its free and open dissemination. He believed that through the interaction of the government and its citizens, facilitated by a free press and open access to information, the government could be most responsive to the people it serves. Surely the American experience has proved him right.”

… It’s our duty as journalists “to shine light into the dark recesses of government secrecy,” as the Society of Professional Journalists notes on its website.

As watchdogs for the community, journalists for The Times Argus and Rutland Herald track the laborious process of public meetings: ensuring meetings were warned correctly; making sure those running the meetings are not excluding the public from discussions; making sure our elected and appointed leaders are not abusing executive sessions in order to have private conversations that should be happening in open session; and following up by making sure the minutes of the meetings are posted within the constructs of Vermont law.

Considering how many public meetings are held across the state every week, that is a heavy lift, but an important one, especially when journalists start to identify patterns and certain boards that are bold enough to be making public decisions outside the public, either to assert power, or to avoid process. Either motive is why we need Sunshine Laws to protect the process and the public.

Mining public documents — including emails, text messages and correspondences — also falls under the purview of public access to information. Any citizen has the right to ask to see public documents. The process requires a level of specificity, and there is a documented timeline for requests being accepted or denied, and it sets guidelines (and cost parameters if the request is for a lot of documents requiring copying and staff time) for the timely release of public documents.

Knowing that process — and the potential pitfalls — usually gives journalists a better chance of asking for information than a member of the public who might not know where a document was created or from where it was distributed. That is the luxury of having a responsible local newspaper doing that work, seeking out those trouble spots, and calling out our civic leaders.

Bottom line: Public officials conduct themselves on behalf of the public. They do so in public, and their meetings are warned publicly, and their minutes are posted publicly. Except from notable exceptions, we all have a right to know.

Every citizen benefits from open government. Everyone deserves access to public information and what it means to you and your community.

It’s your right to know. It’s our privilege to keep an eye on it.