May 1, 2013 pnj.com
TALLAHASSEE — A bill being sent to Gov. Rick Scott seeks to make sure that Floridians have the right to be heard — and not just seen — at local government and state agency meetings.
The measure (SB 50) won final approval from the Florida House on a 113-2 vote Wednesday. The bill won 40-0 passage in the Senate earlier in the session.
The bill requires that people attending a public meeting be given the right to speak.
The legislation is a response to appeals-court rulings on Florida’s open-government “sunshine law.” Those decisions interpreted the law as requiring officials to meet in public but not requiring them to give citizens a voice.
In 2009, Escambia Circuit Judge Frank Bell rejected a lawsuit filed by two Pensacola residents accusing the Community Maritime Park Associates board of violating the state’s sunshine law by failing to have a public comment period during meetings.
The board, which at the time was chaired by U.S. District Judge Lacey Collier, had held about 30 meetings without an official public comment period.
Bell found that the law only guarantees that meetings are open to the public and that there is no guarantee the people attending be allowed to speak.
The 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee upheld that ruling the following year, and the Florida Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
The bill allows governments to set time limits on public comment and exempts some meetings of an emergency or purely ceremonial nature. It also allows enforcement by court orders known as injunctions.
“This is America,” said Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek. “Let us be heard.”
If signed into law by the governor, the legislation would exempt emergency meetings from requiring public input. Additionally, time and decorum limits could still be set.