National Freedom of Information Coalition
Protecting Your Right to Open Government

Tag: sunshine law

Will a one-word change wreck or improve Florida’s public records law?

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In a debate that could reshape how the state handles its Sunshine laws, Florida lawmakers are swiftly advancing a bill that proponents say will crack down on “economic terrorists” that are abusing state law by extorting money from governments through frivolous and misleading public records requests.

But opponents say the solution is an overreaction that will “gut” the state’s open records laws and permanently cloud its Sunshine Law tradition.

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Editorial: Bills threaten to dim Sunshine (Florida)

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Although Florida is widely considered to have among the strongest open-records laws in the nation, that reputation is imperiled every year when lawmakers in Tallahassee seek to pass exemptions that nibble away at the public’s right to know how its government operates.

The latest attempt to amend the statutes, though, represents a potentially big bite.  Continue…

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Florida First Amendment Foundation: Texting blitz to save firefighters from demotions violated spirit, intent of Sunshine Law

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When it became clear Monday the Jacksonville City Council would not spend $320,000 to prevent fire department demotions, the firefighters’ union president sent out a flurry of text messages to council members in a last-ditch, real-time — and private — lobbying push for a second vote.

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Editorial: Your opportunity to reform North Dakota’s sunshine laws

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In 1887, the Legislative Assembly of the Dakota Territory commanded that city councils "shall sit with open doors and shall keep a journal of their own proceedings."

Open meetings and open records have been a part of North Dakota law ever since. Now, it's time for an update of those laws—and North Dakota is asking for residents' help. Continue…

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Opinion: The Dark Side of Government in the Sunshine

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Like motherhood, ice cream and the all-expenses-paid vacation, seemingly everybody should like transparency in government. The specter of elected or unelected officials making decisions behind closed doors conjures up visions of corruption and would seem to signify government on behalf of private interests. For this reason, most democratic governments, to varying degrees, now operate under various laws and rules intended to promote openness.

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EDITORIAL: Sunshine wasn’t a Stalin plot

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DeFuniak Springs City Councilman Kermit Wright really, really, really doesn’t like Florida’s open-government, or sunshine, laws. And he doesn’t mind saying so. “The sunshine law is a communist plot straight out of Stalin,” he told the Daily News’ Tom McLaughlin the other day. “I don’t like it or anything that restricts free speech. It’s against everything I stand for.”

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Proposals Put Sunshine Law Under Siege

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Florida's Government in the Sunshine Law is getting a little cloudy from three dozen bills that, if passed, would create exceptions ranging from not disclosing finalists for top state university and college jobs to exempting addresses and other information on all former and active members of the military.

For average citizens, it means less information on a wide range of issues to which they have had access for at least five decades. That also means less opportunity to have a say in issues or decisions being made that affect them.

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Proposals Put Florida Sunshine Law Under Siege

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Florida's Government in the Sunshine Law is getting a little cloudy from three dozen bills that, if passed, would create exceptions ranging from not disclosing finalists for top state university and college jobs to exempting addresses and other information on all former and active members of the military.
 
For average citizens, it means less information on a wide range of issues to which they have had access for at least five decades. That also means less opportunity to have a say in issues or decisions being made that affect them.