Prepared by Dean Ridings, Executive Director, Florida Press Association
** When Florida's public records and open meetings laws were enacted in 1967 there were many complaints by elected officials at all levels that their ability to effectively operate and make decisions would be drastically reduced.
Thirty-five years later few elected officials can make that argument with a straight face.
Over those thirty-five years Florida's public records and open meetings laws, known generally as the "Sunshine laws," have come to be regarded as a national model for governmental access and citizen participation.
Floridians showed the depth of their support in 1992, when 83% of the voters cast their ballot to make the Sunshine Laws a part of the State Constitution to ensure continuation and protection of the public's right to governmental access.
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**Exemptions to public records and public meetings can be created only by the State Legislature when a clear "public necessity" for the closure can be demonstrated. Over the years, however, there has been an increasing willingness by lawmakers to close access to records and meetings.
This past Legislative session, over 60 bills were filed that would close public access to records or meetings. A number of them were related to security issues, as a result of 9-11, and to privacy concerns, but many were focused on special and competitive interests with little justification.
They include such provisions as closure of access to adverse incident reports filed by physicians with the Department of Health, which are reports of catastrophic mistakes made by a physician while treating a patient in his or her office. Similar legislation would have closed adverse incident reports filed by pharmacists. Another bill would have closed access to all public utility records. Another would have closed meetings where public officials are going to decide vendor contracts.
Due to strong public opposition only 23 bills which impacted public access were enacted, and most of those bills were tightened and more narrowly focused. A few positive bills strengthening public access were included in that number.
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**This increasing number of bills to create exemptions to the Sunshine Laws is a clear reflection of the growing trend towards limiting public access to government records and meetings. Much of this effort is a result of growing concerns about national security, personal privacy and the rapid spread in information technology.
These are important and valid concerns that certainly must be addressed. However, great care must be taken not to destroy the carefully crafted balance between public access and narrow, legitimate needs for closure and secrecy.
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**Some of the more positive bills adopted this legislative session include creation of a statewide study committee to examine the issues of privacy and public access as they relate to the collection and dissemination of information contained in court and official records.
This legislation was in response to growing concerns about personal information contained in court and official records which were being placed on court clerks' Internet sites to facilitate access.
The study committee will be composed of a broad representation of concerned groups, including the courts, court clerks, legislature, the information industry, public representatives, and others. It will conduct hearings this summer and make recommendations to the Legislature in January for suggested legislation addressing the issue.
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** A Constitutional amendment will be on the ballot in November which will require that laws which create exemptions to public records and meetings must be passed by a two-thirds vote of each house of the Legislature. Currently only a majority vote is necessary and this heightened requirement will make it more difficult to pass controversial exemptions.
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** A law was passed which makes it an additional crime to use public information or information obtained from a public record to facilitate the commission of a crime. This is aimed at reducing improper use of public records.
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**If Floridians are to continue to enjoy the broad access to public records and meetings that has been available to them through Florida's Government in the Sunshine laws they must become aware of the increasing pressures for narrowing and closing that access. They must also relay their concerns to their elected representatives and the political candidates who will be running for office in November.
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