Who owns Government?

Our Opinion: Who owns Government?

March 17, 2008

March 16-22 marks National Sunshine Week – a yearly event that spotlights the key role open government and freedom of information play in a system “by, of and for the people.”

The Florida Society of Newspaper Editors founded the event in 2002 as ‘Sunshine Sunday,’ after Legislative attempts to pass a series of Public Records Law exemptions.

Sunshine Sunday helped draw attention to the issue – so much so that FSNE estimates some 300 attempts to close off public access to government information failed to pass that year’s legislative session, according to sunshineweek.org.

But it’s not just news media who have a vested interest in open government.

In fact, when it comes to public records access, Florida law does not recognize any difference between journalists and other citizens.

“Oh, but it’s none of my business,” some nevertheless insist.

To the contrary, by definition, government’s everybody’s ‘business’…and each citizen a ‘co-owner.’

Just a few of this area’s ownership concerns include:

What we’ll pay in property taxes and where those dollars will be spent.
How we’ll manage incoming growth.
Whether irreplaceable natural resources will be protected or paved over.
Whether citizens or private companies control (and profit from) ‘public good’ assets like libraries, beaches, toll roads and even jails.
How far policing and courts agencies will be held accountable to we, their public employers.
Who will receive “economic development” grant money, land and other taxpayer-funded incentives, and how those dollars will be spent.

In Florida, public business must be conducted during open hearings – in “The Sunshine,” as opposed to behind closed doors. And citizens have the right to review the public record, at will.

Florida government agencies must provide records to anyone who asks, in a reasonable time period. Employees may not ask what the information is needed for.

Public records offer a paper trail on how official business is conducted…and tax dollars are spent.
Open government is thus a key check we ‘owners’ hold against abuse of executive power. People are less likely to do the wrong thing, if they think they might be exposed.

When government happens behind closed doors, on the other hand, and ‘owners’ aren’t allowed to sit in or review records, it’s hard to keep an eye on the business.

The Santa Rosa Chronicle has experienced few problems obtaining requested records from Santa Rosa’s officially structured government.

However, the importance of open government and paper trail records has gained new urgency in recent years, with the proliferation of ‘public/private,’ or ‘quasi-government’ agencies.

‘Quasi-government’ operates in a grey area that makes it hard to tell exactly who its ‘owners’ are.

Legally structured as private, ‘non-profit’ corporations, “quasi-government” may nevertheless wield a great deal of power and influence over vital aspects of public business.

In Florida, ‘quasi-government’ has been handed oversight of transportation planning, affordable housing, social work, hurricane recovery; “economic development,” and other services…many very well-funded, indeed, by taxpayers.

Such agencies are often staffed with unelected appointees from special interest groups -- like big development companies and regional electricity monopolies.

Sometimes, a ‘membership fee’ is required to participate in the agency’s decisionmaking processes…even if taxpayers are footing the bill for agency overhead and operations costs.

Despite its official role, quasi-government corporate structure appears tailor-made to circumvent open government laws.
Some such agencies have even claimed they’re exempt from Sunshine Law…conducting unannounced meetings and other forums behind closed doors and refusing public access to records.

Florida law stipulates agencies that carry out public business must conform to open records statute.

The laws are less clear about “quasi-” meetings in the Sunshine.

If left unchecked, we predict “quasi-government” trends will weaken public ‘ownership’ of government; largely by getting around freedom of information and open meetings laws.

Indeed, well-oiled “quasi-government” arrangements already threaten to allow elected and unelected officials and special interests to set up alternative, ‘members-only’ forms of government:

They offer selected participants (read: lobbyists) a “direct line” to government officials that the general public does not enjoy.
They allow special interests a hand in official decisionmaking…sometimes outside the Sunshine, in closed-door meetings.

Public dollars that go to “quasi-government” may be reclassified as “private” donations once they’re deposited in “public/private” bank accounts; thus creating an avenue to “launder” money and spend it; or pass it to unauthorized persons; without leaving a paper trail.

Santa Rosa Chronicle maintains the position there’s no such thing as “quasi-government.”

You either work for the public or you’re a private entity, like every other citizen.

But, we predict “quasi-government” grey areas will eventually render some citizens “more equal” than others; and shift open government…and paper trails…and public ‘ownership’…towards the shady side of the money tree.

Last year, Governor Charlie Crist set up a special cabinet position to oversee statewide public records compliance; and is currently investigating some of the prior administration’s seedier ‘privatization’ programs. We applaud those efforts.

But we’re also taking this time to reflect on Government in the Sunshine and the challenges we, its current ‘owners,’ face in keeping it there.

Because if ‘We the People’ don’t keep an eye on the shop floor, ‘outsourced’ government will be happy to assume that responsibility from us…and the hidden costs along the way could threaten far more than our pocketbooks.