The sunshine session

Petersen is president of the First Amendment Foundation, a nonprofit Tallahassee group that fights to protect and improve Florida’s Government in the Sunshine Laws. These laws, some of the strictest in the nation, are intended to preserve public access to meetings and records in state and local government.

Petersen’s battle is often a lonely and a losing one, but this year she found allies in legislative leaders and Gov. Rick Scott.

As a result, the cause of open government won some important victories.

Lloyd Dunkelberger of the Herald-Tribune’s Tallahassee bureau recently cited these examples:

• One new law ensures something that few Floridians thought was in jeopardy: the right to speak on an issue at a public meeting — before a board or commission makes a final decision.

This fundamental guarantee was placed in doubt when the St. Johns River water board refused an activist’s request to speak, and state courts later held that Florida law did not specifically grant a right to address government boards. Now it does.

Unfortunately, the Legislature, which exempts itself from many open-government requirements, is not subject to the new law.

Child abuse death reviews

• Scott vetoed a bill that would have allowed members of the state’s Child Abuse Death Review Committee to conduct off-the-record, unrecorded conversations about their work.

• Other new laws improve transparency in state government services and purchasing. A state contract tracking system that the public can access will be established. More openness on appropriations, the state workforce and financial planning will be required, and government contractors will be become subject to provisions of public records laws.

• A major ethics reform law contains provisions for both ethics and open-government training for all constitutional officers, such as county commissioners, sheriffs, clerks and other top administrators.

Petersen told Dunkelberger that the First Amendment Foundation “had more bills to support this session than any session in my memory — that’s a good thing.”

It’s a good thing for the public’s right to know what its government is doing, and for the public’s rights in general.

Broad benefits for the public

As journalists, we at the Herald-Tribune highly value open government. In fact, media companies across the state expend considerable resources defending public access to records and meetings.

But, as the examples cited above show, the Sunshine Laws provide broad benefits to all members of the public interested in both self-government and the actions of government.

We recognize that there are times when personal privacy and the public’s right to know are in conflict. But, more often than not, those conflicts can be avoided by careful legislating that emphasizes the value of openness in government and society.

These new laws enhance that value.

Faced with a choice between secrecy and the public record, the Legislature and the governor this year leaned toward the sunshine. And that’s a very good thing.