The St. Augustine Record
Perspective column by Margo C. Pope, Associate Editor, The St. Augustine Record, March 13, 2005
Today is Sunshine Sunday, a day to celebrate our good fortune to live in Florida where sunshine in government prevails - most of the time.
Florida’s Public Records Law - Chapter 119 in Florida Statutes - and its companion, Government-in-the- Sunshine Law (open meetings), Chapter 286, and the Sunshine Amendment to the Florida Constitution, are our tickets to front-row seats for the deliberations, actions and records of the business of government.
Unfortunately there are more than 1,000 exemptions to our public records and open meetings laws. But there’s enough muscle in the laws to ensure that our business is not done in back rooms, or around “cracker barrels” and “pickle jars,” as my journalism mentor, H.G. “Buddy” Davis Jr., used to say.
Mr. Davis, a Pulitzer-Prize winner and legendary professor of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, died last August. I used to call him in prep for the previous three Sunshine Sundays -- the statewide blitz by newspapers and broadcast stations to remind the public and the legislators of the importance of open records and meetings.
Last year, Mr. Davis said citizens were asleep at the switch letting so many exemptions pass. He was disappointed. Mr. Davis and another legendary professor, Hugh Cunningham, had nudged then-State Rep. Emory “Red” Cross in the late 1950s to push for a state sunshine law. They gave him a model law from Sigma Delta Chi (the Society of Professional Journalists). Cross persisted through five legislative sessions to get it passed.
Keeping the public in the know is my tribute to them.
In St. Johns County, I have some “Sunshine Stars,” champions of public access.
Remember the late Bubba Rowe who had his own public access TV show on what he said was government waste? Years before he stepped into the limelight, he showed up at the old St. Augustine Record on Cordova Street. He brought with him a man from the Hastings-Elkton area. Mr. Rowe said his friend was wronged by the county. He had a stack of county documents to prove it.
“It’s all public record,” Mr. Rowe said. “You can get them, too.”
To enhance his own TV show, he showed up with a video camera at the commission meetings. Officials were concerned. This pre-dated St. Johns GTV, the county channel that broadcasts public meetings into our living rooms. Mr. Rowe told me he couldn’t understand why it was a problem in a building paid for by taxpayers in a meeting covered by sunshine laws. He had a point.
Mr. Rowe was later elected to the County Commission because the people trusted him to do their business. He set an example for others.
Dante Salamone knows how to use sunshine laws. He was a thorn in the side of some commissioners a decade ago because he got rankled by the lack of explanation by officials at the meetings so the public could follow the debate. He got an agenda. Others did, too. He persisted to keep open meetings open.
Frequent speakers at County Commission meetings today are Ellen Whitmer and Louise Thrower. Mary Kohnke, a former commissioner and one-time chairwoman; Diane Mills and Don Beattie speak up often. They all shine lights in the dark corners, mostly guided by public records.
We must always be alert to attacks on open records and meetings. A good start is the First Amendment Foundation’s Web site - www.floridafaf.org. Go to legislative reports and click on bills filed for the 2005 session. Read the summaries and updates. Judge what you’ll lose with each exemption passed.
Let legislators know, before they vote on any of these bills, that we need them to ask, does this bill help or hinder the public’s right to know?
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Reproduced courtesy of The St. Augustine Record.
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