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Public deserves convention facts

If Tampa wins its bid to host the 2008 Republican National Convention, the city would face at least $13-million in costs, the event would tie up two public arenas and the government would be on the hook for a slew of commitments, from providing parking and rerouting traffic to building tent cities to house the protesters.

Yet the group managing the bid, the Tampa Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau, thinks these guarantees are a private matter. It has refused requests under Florida's open-government laws to release the bid. This is arrogance from a group that gets 80 percent of its money from taxes. It also is typical. The bureau did the same thing when it bid on the 2004 GOP convention, only grudgingly coming clean after a needless public battle.

Reporters discovered the last time around that the bureau was telling the public one thing and party leaders another. The cost to taxpayers it discussed publicly was half the figure estimated to convention officials. The Tampa Tribune sued for the new bid documents Thursday, claiming the bureau is acting as an agent of the government - hence the records law would apply. A judge needs to set the convention officials straight. Pursuing a public event, in public facilities, at public cost and on a city's behalf should not be a trade secret from the taxpayers paying the freight.

[Last modified June 3, 2006, 06:24:13]