Seeking answers to a Florida public records crisis | Editorial
Florida First Amendment advocates are mobilizing, belatedly, and seeking to force the state and local governments to comply with the public records law with threats of financial penalties.
Florida has an extremely serious public records problem, and some very committed people want to fix it.
That won’t be easy, because the people responsible for this crisis — Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature — are the same people they must rely on to fix the system.
For decades, Florida had one of the strongest public records laws in the country.
The Florida Constitution and state law both guarantee a right of access to records of the state and of local governments, though the Legislature adds new exemptions year after year.
The underlying law is clear. “Every person who has custody of a public record shall permit the record to be inspected and copied by any person desiring to do so, at any reasonable time, under reasonable conditions, and under supervision by the custodian of the public records,” it says.
A public records ‘farce’
But this right of access is violated regularly because too many people in state government don’t take the law seriously. That starts at the top — in the governor’s office.
The state routinely slow-walks requests for public records for months, even years, avoiding compliance until the request has lost its timeliness or the requester moves on or retires.
The state took nearly two years before it denied The Orlando Sentinel’s request for DeSantis’ travel records, citing an exemption that was enacted by the Legislature long after the initial request was made.
Two former officials of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement claimed that aides to DeSantis blocked release of other travel records and retaliated against them for questioning the decision.
The Washington Post has sued the state to obtain travel records and emails that by law are public records. The ACLU sued the state nearly a year ago for refusing to promptly turn over public records on immigration activities.
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Under DeSantis, public records requests often require legal intervention to get attention. At a time when many news organizations struggle to survive, that’s expensive.
It should not take a lawsuit, or the threat of one, to get a bureaucrat to enforce a right of access guaranteed by the Florida Constitution.
The First Amendment Foundation, joined by the University of Florida’s Brechner Center for the Advancement of the First Amendment and the Florida Center for Government Accountability, will push next year for a law to compel compliance with public records requests.
They will propose creation of a high-level independent ombudsman in state government with power to impose fines for non-compliance with public records requests. This legal and financial two-by-four is sorely needed in Florida.
Various models of the ombudsman exist in Connecticut, Washington and Pennsylvania, where a statewide Office of Open Records (OOR) enforces that state’s Right to Know Law.
The law provides a penalty of up to $1,500 if an agency denies public records in bad faith and up to $500 a day when an agency does not promptly comply with a court order to release records.
Bobby Block, executive director of the First Amendment Foundation, announced the strategy at the foundation’s annual awards ceremony, held last weekend in Tallahassee.
The awards ceremony was held in Florida State University’s law school rotunda, named after the late Talbot (Sandy) D’Alemberte, a former FSU president, law school dean and First Amendment champion.
The routine lack of respect for the public records law has become “a farce” in Florida, Block said.
“Our freedoms only exist because of actions taken by individuals who believe in them, and that’s why we’re here today,” Block said. “They understand that free speech only works when it works for everybody.”
In that spirit, the foundation gave two annual Friend of the First Amendment Awards. One was given to the conservative Christian broadcaster Bill Bunkley, who has worked to defeat legislative proposals to weaken Florida’s defamation laws.
Another award went to Stephana Ferrell of Orlando, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting student access to books. By her own account, Ferrell said she has filed more than 1,000 public records requests.
“There’s a reason it’s the First Amendment,” Ferrell said. “It’s the most important right.”
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.