Getting It Right - This Is "Sunshine Week" Have You Celebrated?

State Recognizes Importance of Florida’s Sunshine Laws
By Sid Riley

This column presents a non-partisan, conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions. Now, on to the subject of the week:

While many of us are celebrating the abundance of sunshine we are now enjoying as Spring has finally arrived in Jackson County as heralded by budding dogwoods and azaleas, others are pausing to celebrate the fact that Florida is one of the states where "Sunshine Laws" exist.

In my opinion, this is one of the things our Florida Legislature has gotten right. Our state Sunshine Law has long been a national model for presumption of openness. However, our legislators have now allowed nearly 1,000 "special interest" exemptions that allow secrecy of everything from union negotiation strategies to pet records. Politics are steadily beginning to taint the system. We should all let our legislators know that we do not want the lobbyists to "buy secrecy" by having laws passed that exempt their special interests from having their activities monitored by the public.

Sunday marked the start of Sunshine Week, a national effort by newspapers, TV stations, nonprofits, schools and libraries to emphasize the importance of open government and access to information. It is not an exciting topic, but it is a fundamental component of an effective democracy. In a society that relies on an informed public, the access to and flow of needed information is vital.

Positive Developments:
Some recent positive developments in the protection of these laws have occurred.
- Attorney General Bill McCollum launched a Government Accountability Project to find out which state and local records were the hardest for the public to access.
- Clemency reports, which were previously kept in secret, are now accessible to applicants prior to their hearings.
- Crist also has released names previously held secret of double-dippers collecting state pensions and full state salaries at the same time. This led to new bills designed to end abuses within the state retirement system.
- A spending disclosure bill is in the Legislature for creation of a Web site to list all contract expenditures in excess of $5,000 by state agencies. Potential Problems: Despite the continued emphasis on government openness by advocacy groups, others continue to promote exemptions that create "loopholes" in the concept.
Some of the troubling bills include:
- Expansion of exemptions in the insurance arena to shield insurance companies "trade" secrets from public scrutiny.
- Exemption to allow closed door meetings for officials to discuss potential litigation against the state.
- An exemption that goes overboard in restricting all personal information such as names and addresses. To erase this data from all documents creates a huge administrative workload and cost.
- Allowing agencies to charge large fees for access to public information. One state agency instituted a $700.00 fee for the simplest record search. The FDLE charges $24.00 for background records that local police usually provide for less than a quarter.
- The Jackson Health System signed a questionable contract with the State last year, and the Miami Herald requested for copies of hospital e-mails on the deal. The hospital sent a reply they would provide the requested information for a fee of $165,721. The ensuing standoff was never resolved and the records remain secret.

Where to go for information- Some useful web sites are: - www.miamifly.net/watchdog/foia.html - www.coj.net (tax estimator) - www/doh.state.fl.us/irm00praes/praslist.asp (doctors, hospitals licensing status, complaints, discipline actions) - http://data.fldoe.org ( education data, school test scores, grad rates and more) - www.fdle.state.fl.us (criminal background checks, sexual predators, offenders) - www.flgov.com/og home (describes how to access records in every state agency) Remember, an informed citizen, votes wisely.

RUDAMENTS- ODDS AND ENDS WORTH MENTIONING: Teen Age Sex- On last week’s 20/20 TV program the subject of John Stossel’s part of the show was what appears to be fallacies with the strict interpretation of some sex law violations. Specifically, it dealt with a portion of the format of "Megan’s Law" which draws the line for a minor female at sixteen years of age. Stossel also appeared on the O’Reilly Factor discussing the same issue. In its existing form the law shows no differentiation for sexual activity between a sixteen year old girl and an eighteen year old male, and for this same girl and a forty year old male.

I tend to agree that the forced sentencing levels and inclusion for life on sexual predator listings for an immature, oversexed teen age boy is too harsh and stupid. For the forty year old, it is appropriate.

I am writing on this subject because of a press release received at the Jackson County Times this week from the Sheriff’s Department. They are investigating a local case where an eighteen year old boy, Gerald Lee, had a baby with a sixteen year old girl. He is thus being charged with Lewd and Lascivious Molestation of a Child between 12 and 16, and could be found subject to the harsh sentencing penalties defined in Megan’s Law and would then be on the sexual predator listings for the rest of his life. He would have been 17 when the act occurred.

Ironically, just a few days after seeing the issue presented on television, we had the same, exact issue before our legal establishment here in Jackson County. Florida has Megan’s Law which forces judges to give severe sentences to anyone guilty of molesting a minor (I think the minimum sentence is twenty years).

If we could do detailed investigative work on the sexual history of every male in Jackson County, how many of us would also be guilty of fooling around with a sixteen year old girl when we were seventeen? This law needs modification in this part of its format. Ruining a young man’s life because of an immature teen age love affair is wrong.
As to the old deviant that killed and tortured poor little Megan in that trailer, they can’t kill him fast enough or bury him deep enough to suit me.

For more on the 20/20 story go to http://abcnews.go.com/2020.

Courthouse Beautification- Well they have the $60,000 new second handicapped ramp finished at our courthouse. I think it goes well with the existing level of beauty of the facility. State JUCO Tournament- I want to congratulate the Chipola Appreciation Club, and all who took part in making this event a real boon to our area.

We wish the Indians great success at the national tournament.

Administration Building- In my opinion we should not allow our commissioners to merely delay the building project. An opportunity currently exists to buy a suitable facility at a price that would ultimately save the county millions of dollars. Please encourage them to hire an unbiased construction expert to determine if there would be any problems with using the old Wal-Mart building for a new County Administration Complex, and what the cost per square foot for preparation would be.

With this information at hand, they can then make a wise, informed decision as to the advisability of making an offer on the vacant building. To wait will result in a lost opportunity to possibly save taxpayers millions of dollars. If they delay too long another use will be found for this fine facility.

Meanwhile, stay informed, be proactive, and prepare to vote for candidates that will not continue to widen the spread of the wings of government over our personal lives and dig its talons into our pocketbooks. Do this and you will be "Getting It Right".