The Florida Legislature has a mixed record on public records bills this session. One would require public agencies to provide an electronic option to pay for public records requests -- as in, credit cards. But that bill hasn’t been heard in a single committee in either chamber. Another bill, that would exempt the personal information of public officials and their families, is in Messages.
Florida’s public records queen, Barbara Petersen, CEO and publisher of the Florida Center for Government Accountability and the Florida Trident, shared her thoughts with WFSU.
WFSU: So, all this bill does is give you the option of paying with a credit card online?
BP: Right. It’s a very simple thing, isn’t it?
WFSU: It seems completely innocuous. Why would that bill not have gotten a hearing in a single committee?
BP: So, why is this bill stalled? It’s part of a pattern we’re seeing, with lengthy delays in getting records we’ve requested. Lengthy delays, unreasonable delays. In my opinion, unlawful delays in getting public records. High fees. It’s the way…the attitude. It’s part of this anti-access attitude that I blame Gov. DeSantis for.
WFSU: Why do you blame Gov. DeSantis for it?
BP: Because he sets the tone. Right? We wait months to get records. Months to get records. Simple, simple requests. He sets the tone. He controls those agencies and their policies. We question, and they say, “We don’t have the personnel.” Well, are you intentionally understaffing the offices that are responsible for providing access to public records -- which, can I remind you, is a constitutional right in this state? Are they that slow in processing a traffic ticket? No! But they are that slow in processing public records.
And I don’t know who else to blame, frankly. The legislature has routinely and regularly been sort of slow, because the House has rules and the Senate has rules and they’re not always the same. But they’ve never been like this, where it takes months and years. Years! You know that case the Washington Post brought against the governor and the [Executive Office of the Governor]? It’s unconstitutional in my mind. And yes, I do blame the governor.
WFSU: It’s the legislature that is not --
BP: Correct.
WFSU: -- hearing any of these bills.
BP: Correct, and so, yes, legislative leadership has a role to play in this. But there’s no visible support for open government in the legislature, like there used to be. There are no champions. And like virtually everything else in the legislature, I have to think that this is partisanship. Open government and access to public records had never been a partisan issue. You know, we would get exemptions, horrible exemptions, from both Republicans and Democrats.
I was just looking at the exemption … the proposed exemption for the home address of public officers. Anyone elected to public office. If that bill passes -- and I’m pretty confident it’s going to pass -- we will know where a public officer, what zip code they claim is their residence. But we don’t know if they live there, and some zip codes can be huge. And some zip codes can be divided by districts. So, there’s no way for us to verify that an elected official is living in the district that official has been elected to represent. And we know from our own experience in Tallahassee and other local governments around the state that they may claim to live in one within their district and they use an address within their district, but they’re not living there. They’re living in the gated community on the north side of town.
There’s no oversight now. I had a reporter say to me, “Well, they have to file. Their filing form says where they live.” And I said, “But do you think anybody checks it?” No! That’s up to us. It’s up to the citizens and the media to check to make sure these people are reporting accurately, and truthfully reporting. I’m not saying all legislators and all elected officials do this, but enough of them do.
WFSU: Our biggest takeaway is that public records have been nibbled away at over a period of years.
BP: Former Senator Dan Gelber called it “death by 1,000 paper cuts.” And now we’re at about 1,300 paper cuts in terms of the number of exemptions. It’s odd, because it does seem to be the only thing this legislature can agree on, are new exemptions.
