The Florida Sunshine Laws are aptly named when you think about sunshine. When something is in the sunshine, it is out in the open. Florida Sunshine Laws state that all government proceedings are open to the public for inspection. Any public record created by a government agency is open to any person in the community for review. Public records are broadly defined by Florida statutes as all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings, data processing software, or other material, regardless of physical form, characteristics, or means of transmission, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any agency. This broad definition is what gives Floridians such a unique set of public record laws. Other states do not have such lenient laws and may make requests for public documents nearly impossible. For example, a public record under Florida Statute 119.011 would make an e-mail sent from a county commissioner to city council a public record open to the community to inspect.
These Sunshine Laws have not come into being as a recent amendment to the state constitution, but in fact have been a part of the Florida constitution since 1909. Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes was passed in 1909 and became known as the “Public Records Law.” This law provided that any records made or received by any public agency in the course of its official business are available for inspection, unless specifically exempted by the Legislature. Since the passage of this statute, the definition of public document has been reinterpreted throughout the years to adapt to the evolving means of communication.
Beginning in 1967, the Government-In-The-Sunshine Law was enacted and became a part of Chapter 286 of the Florida Statutes. This law went on further to say that Sunshine Laws also cover public meetings.The law establishes a basic right of access to most meetings of commissions, boards and other government bodies. Floridians have since been able to attend any government meeting where two or more publicly elected officials talk about any government proceedings. The Sunshine Laws even allow residents to attend meetings of the Legislature. When the problem of deciding to allow residents into Legislature meetings, an amendment was overwhelmingly passed by voters in 1990 to allow public access to legislative meetings.
To further the availability of public records and open meetings, Gov. Charlie Crist issued Executive Order 07-107 on June 19, 1997, creating the Commission on Open Government Reform. The commission is a nine member panel that was created within the Governor’s Office of Open Government The commission reviews, evaluates and issues recommendations regarding Florida’s public records and open meetings laws.
“Florida’s Sunshine Laws are among the strongest in the nation and give every citizen access to information necessary for participating in the democratic process,” said Governor Crist. “The Commission on Open Government will help ensure that all levels of government are accessible to the people.” Gov. Crist instructed the commission to review policies pertaining to Article 1, Section 24 of the Florida Constitution as well as Chapters 119 and 286.011. The findings of the commission will be presented to the Governor, the Senate President, and the Speaker of the House representatives on December 31, 2008.
The commission has set forth specific responsibilities to address concerning Sunshine Laws. The first responsibility is to review fees imposed for copying or reviewing public records. Problems have arose in recent times due to the advancement of technology. The commission is working to ensure that the public is receiving information for the least amount of money to produce such records. Another responsibility of the commission is to review the collection, storage, retrieval, dissemination and accessibility of public records through advanced technologies such as the Internet. Throughout this course, it has been seen that most records are available for inspection on the Internet; however, some records are still only available for inspection at the office in which they are housed.
The final responsibility of the commission is to review the policies regarding the public’s right to participate in agency’s meetings. The commission plans to see if under the Florida Constitution if the public has a right to speak at such meetings through the use of telephone, video conference,, or other remote electronic means.
In their August 2007 meeting, testimonies were given as to what areas the Sunshine Laws needed to address or be re-worked. One such testimony that was brought before the commission dealt with the secrecy of clemency files. Currently, clemency files are confidential in accordance with Rule 16 and Section 14.28 of the Florida Statutes. The statutes say that the clemency files are exempt from disclosure unless otherwise released by the Governor. The witness brought forth a testimony detailing how a juvenile in the wrong place at the wrong time was convicted of felony murder and was sentenced to life in jail without parole for 25 years. The witness spoke of testimonies from officers at the prisoner’s jail discussing good behavior and work towards education; however, his clemency was denied. The inmate will once again be able to apply for clemency, but since his lawyers do not know why he was denied the first time, then they cannot work toward rectifying the problem disallowing his chance at clemency.
Another testimony came from Joy Ezell who discussed the situations in Taylor County in regard to obtaining a public record request. Ezell had produced the request she had sent to her county government to obtain public records from her county government to any other governing body or the electric, utilities, or power agency concerning the proposed coal-fired power plant in Taylor County. Ezell stated that she had been denied access to county e-mails concerning county business related to the Taylor Energy Center. Ezell further went on to lay claims that the commission shrugs off all public records requests pursuant to situations concerning the company Proctor & Gamble/Buckeye. Ezell claims that the Taylor County government has been acting “out of the sunshine” for many years and that a change needs to come about in order to continue democracy in Taylor County.
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