Preview of 2007 Florida legislative Sunshine issues
Posted by gilt on March 9, 2007
The 2007 legislative session will again be busy with Sunshine issues, based on what I heard this week in Tallahassee.
Adrian Harper, director of the First Amendment Foundation, says an early bill count shows the filing of about as many proposed exemptions to the Florida open records/meetings law as past sessions. That’s a bit of a surprise because the executive (Gov. Crist in particular) and legislative leadership are far friendlier, at least so far and publicly, on First Amendment issues than their predecessors.
House Speaker Rubio (100 Ideas for Florida) appears to be the spiritual father of a half dozen bills in the House and Senate that would severely limit the release of “personal identification information” in public documents when so requested by the person. That information would include name, address, telephone number, etc. Even innocent possession of such information, say by a reporter or researcher, would be a felony. The intent of the bills appears to be to curb credit agency access to government records and cut down identity theft. The bills’ result would be evisceration of the disclosable content of many public records.
The atmosphere in Tallahassee with the “bipartisan” Crist is very different than with Bush, who rarely if ever lifted a finger to help on Sunshine issues. Crist has created an Open Government office and relies heavily on the counsel of our First Amendent friend Pat Gleason. Crist is expected to cede power back to the legislature, which in turn is expected to proceed in an orderly, accountable fashion on Sunshine issues, thus avoiding late-session blindsidings.
An emerging issue to watch is how Sunshine law requirements might be narrowed for new, quasi-governmental entities like the Scripps Institute, Moffitt Cancer Center and Byrd Alzheimer’s Center. Also teed up is a bill that would allow hospitals to conduct key job searches in secret.
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