In the spring of 1986 a country lawyer from Quincy named James Harold Thompson was speaker of the Florida House.
It may be the last time all of us really knew what was going on in the House.
Thompson ran the House with his door open. Capital reporters who wanted to see what was going on walked in and quietly took notes. We watched meetings with members, lobbyists, constituents, the governor - whoever was there.
It was, after all, the public's business, and he felt we had a right to watch.
Sometimes they had fights. On one memorable night, Gov. Bob Graham's chief of staff and the House disagreed on an education issue. Sam Bell, then the House appropriations chairman, lost his temper and tossed the governor's staff out of the speaker's office, directing them never to return.
We wrote about it. A few days later they kissed and made up and all was well.
It wasn't always pretty, but in Thompson's House you had the feeling that you pretty much knew what they were doing with the people's business.
Budget negotiations have always been touchy, with reporters playing a game of hide and seek with negotiators. But this year there was a lot of hiding and lots of seeking, but very little negotiating that occurred in public.
The speakers who came after Thompson began erecting walls that blocked access to offices. Senate presidents did the same. Some were more open than others. Some had more to hide than others.
Now you cannot enter most offices without someone letting you through a locked door. And the House has become so secretive that reporters were jokingly issuing an "Amber alert" for Appropriations Chairman Bruce Kyle during this week's budget negotiations.
Kyle, R-Fort Myers, refused to attend a public meeting with Senate Appropriations Chairman Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, who refused to meet in secret.
All this secrecy added to the difficulty in reaching agreement. Had they met in public, it would have been hard to back away from an agreement. Decisions in the House were made behind the speaker's closed doors. The Senate repeatedly met in public in an odd one-sided dance.
House Speaker Johnnie Byrd emerged from self-imposed exile Thursday to proclaim it another great day in the state of Florida. He appeared with Senate President Jim King at the end of the day to proclaim the budget finished - leaving us unable to tell you much about how they reached agreement.
The only budget documents we saw were provided by the Senate. King gets a big gold star for openness.
We have yet to see an actual budget - that should come today.
The Constitution says we have a right to watch when two or more legislators gather to discuss the state's business. These days it almost takes an act of Congress to get through all of the locked doors where they can hide.
In 1992, an overwhelming majority of Florida voters amended the state Constitution to force legislators to comply with the state's sunshine and public records law. People actually want to know what's happening to them. The same amendment requires public notice when the governor meets with the Senate president or House speaker.
That too has fallen by the wayside. Of course if I were Gov. Jeb Bush and I was about to kick a House speaker in the backside, as he did when he persuaded Byrd to drops his demand for $45-million for an Alzheimer's research institute in Tampa, I might hide from reporters too.
On Tuesday lawmakers return to Tallahassee for a final vote on the budget, workers' compensation, auto insurance reforms and a handful of other issues. Then they'll go home for a few days and return again for a session on medical malpractice.
Reminds me of the old adage about guests and fish.
