This week it is Sunshine Weekan annual celebration of transparency laws, which means government press offices across the country work hard pretending they don’t spend the other 51 weeks of the year undermining those transparency laws.
If you want to see who your leaders are Truly think about you and your statutory right to know what they are doing, just ask them to respect the open government laws on the books.
Two officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement claimed Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office earlier this month blocked the release of DeSantis’ publicly funded travel documents and retaliated against them for claiming the documents were public under the state’s Sunshine Law.
Like me he wrote last year For ReasonIn the Florida special issue of this article, politicians have chipped away at the state’s much-vaunted public records law for decades, but DeSantis and his allies in the Florida Legislature are cracking down on it.
Elsewhere in the Sunshine State, a fire chief Did you call the police because a local reporter had the temerity to insist, rightly, that he had the legal right to inspect public records in person. Tampa Bay Times Journalist Jason Garcia showed up at Tampa Fire Department headquarters asking to see documents related to the firing of a firefighter. Florida’s Sunshine Law is unequivocal on this point: “All state, county and municipal records are open to personal inspection and copying by any person.”
However, two department employees, one of whom was the chief of staff, argued that Garcia had no right to see the documents because he had already submitted a records request online. Tampa Fire Chief Barbara Tripp eventually called police to report Garcia for causing a disturbance, though she left before backup arrived to end his reign of terror.
The chief of staff said in a statement that Garcia “continued to be argumentative and repetitive and refused to accept the answer and leave.”
“No matter how you want to put it, though, journalists should ask questions and ask for explanations,” he said Tampa Bay Times he wrote in an editorial regarding the alleged commotion. “This may irritate those in power, but it does not constitute an unruly disturbance.”
Meanwhile in Virginia, a former government employee in Richmond filed a complaint whistleblower retaliation lawsuit earlier this month alleging that city officials told her to intentionally delay and obstruct Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. She the former employee claims she was fired “in retaliation for reporting and refusing to engage in illegal and unethical activities in violation of the FOIA.”
The lawsuit came shortly after local news outlet CBS 6 reported that Richmond routinely misses FOIA deadlines and sometimes ignores requests altogether.
If you want to see more governments run wild, you can check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s annual Foilsignominious “rewards” for violations and abuses of public documents.
The reason government offices can get away with violating records laws is that there is no one to hold them accountable and there are few consequences in the rare cases when they are reprimanded.
An associated press survey of all 50 US statesreleased yesterday for Sunshine Week, found that less than a third of states have offices to handle freedom of information appeals and force agencies to comply with the law.
“In most states, the only sensible option for residents to resolve complaints about agencies unfairly withholding public records is to file costly lawsuits,” the AP wrote.
These ombudsmen and other positions provide crucial levels of oversight. Without them, agencies know they can frivolously delay and deny requests with little resistance, and even if they lose a case, the only consequence is usually a small fine, paid with taxpayer dollars, of course.
“It shows that we have a problem in the United States. We have these laws, but they really lack enforcement,” says David Cuillier, director of the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida, which coordinates Sunshine Week. “The system is stacked against the average person. It’s not fair that they have to hire a lawyer and put in all that time and money just to make sure the law is upheld. Who can afford $10,000, $20,000 to do that? Not the average person.”
If you want a transparent and responsive government, one place to start is by calling for the creation of independent offices to resolve public records disputes outside of costly court battles. Without them, statutes are, just like government press releases, empty promises.