A few clouds appeared across the Florida Sunshine Law this week. It is to be expected whenever legislators gather.
The first signs of trouble came in the Senate, where Senate President Jim King is walling off the door and elevator where reporters caught senators to explain why they voted the way they did.
King insists the new wall, part of a $114,000 remodeling project, is not being built to stop reporters from doing their jobs.
It's because lobbyists gather outside that door and trap senators, King says. "What I saw was like a bargain basement opening day at Macy's," King complained. "Lobbyists were lining up against the wall hammering the members as they go in."
King doesn't want his members to have to run that gantlet.
Poor little senators. Like they weren't busily soliciting campaign contributions from every lobbyist in sight.
The Senate did pass a new rule prohibiting members from soliciting contributions for the parties or PACs during session.
The second cloud from the Senate came with a little change in the rules that eliminates access when two senators meet to discuss business. Although King and everyone else cheerfully ignored the old rule, the new rule will allow access when more than two members meet.
King says he's trying to make the rules conform to the Florida Constitution, which refers to more than two members, to eliminate confusion.
Confusion?
No one with a brain could be confused by a rule that said meetings between two or more senators should be open. Now it will take three, a retreat from openness.
Over in the House, they are approving bills that would drastically limit access to records at the Florida Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute at the University of South Florida in Tampa. It's a pet project of House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, who got it named for his father. Rep. Kevin Ambler, R-Tampa, sponsored the bill (HB 147), which gives nine new exemptions to the institute and expands exemptions for the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center at USF.
Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation, says the bill seals off any opportunity for public oversight of the two institutions.
But Petersen is more worried about a bill that prohibits government agencies from keeping any list or record of privately owned firearms. That bill imposes a fine of $5-million on any public agency that keeps a list and requires lists to be destroyed within 60 days.
That fine is higher than a criminal would pay for a really serious crime. Rep. Lindsay Harrington, R-Punta Gorda, is sponsoring the bill (HB 155).
These guys spend a lot of time talking about their desire for more "transparency" in government. But when it comes to the little things they'd like to protect, transparency is out the window.
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As expected, there was a lot of baaaaing this week as the Legislature came to town for the beginning of a 60-day session. It was all directed at Byrd because he likened his members to sheep.
Even the political cartoonists got in on the act, depicting Byrd as a shepherd holding a staff and directing a flock of sheep over a cliff.
Democratic Party chairman Scott Maddox showed up with two live sheep named Bo and Peep in the Capitol courtyard. Maddox said the sheep were insulted over being compared to lawmakers.
Democrats on the back row of the House could be heard baaaaing at various moments, but Byrd ignored the uproar and finished opening day spouting the usual platitudes like "living within our means."
