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Stealth Senate pounces on fears
© St. Petersburg Times, You can relax now. The state Senate can go behind closed doors at the discretion of one man, the Senate president, to talk about security or terrorism. There. Feel safer? Any seasoned legislator knows all too well that terrible things happen when decisions are made in haste, without time to deliberate or hear from constituents. But Florida's official response to terrorism includes the biggest attack on openness since the Sunshine Law was enshrined in the Constitution three decades ago. Secrecy breeds mistrust, not confidence. But with dissent seen as vaguely unpatriotic, lawmakers realize this is the safest time to chip away at Florida's once-vaunted open government laws. They don't want to waste time. Such an atmosphere invites what some legislators call "the slippery slope" of further exemptions in the coming months -- with little risk of resistance. The fact is that lawmakers meet in secret despite what the law says now. They hold dinner meetings or work the phones. "Let's talk real life," said Sen. Locke Burt, R-Ormond Beach. "You can get around the open meeting law just by picking up the telephone." The headlong rush to close meetings and add new open records loopholes is not simply about terrorists. It's also about making it harder for the news media to do its job. "They don't believe the press needs to beat them to a location where they can interview somebody," said Sen. Rod Smith, D-Gainesville, who supported a one-week hold on records in terrorism-related cases if the Florida Department of Law Enforcement decides publication could hurt an investigation. A couple of legislators resisted the tide. Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, voted against the bill, saying it was unwise to give police so much power. Then there's Burt, who often leads the charge on law enforcement issues and has been drawing support from sheriffs in his campaign for attorney general. He also knows the best way to endear himself to editorial boards who make endorsements in statewide races is to stand tall against secrecy. Burt didn't see the need for a hold on public records, either. "I think the bad guys have all the information they need," he said. "I'm having a hard time imagining a scenario where this would protect us. Give me a hypothetical," he told FDLE Commissioner Tim Moore. Moore cited a list of licensed crop dusters in Florida kept by the state. FDLE got the list, Moore said, and "shortly behind us were our friends in the press saying, "They are public records. Give them to us.' Trying to play by the rules, we have to produce them." Moore called release of the crop duster list "a definite perceived threat to public safety" because of the chance that the document's release could inadvertently tip off a suspect. In the end, Burt voted for the bill anyway. Even "definite perceived threats" justify new limits on public records. This newspaper, and others, got a copy of the registry, but we determined it had little news value. The point is, the paper made the decision independently. Next time, FDLE will decide for us. It didn't take long for lawmakers to feel twinges of self-doubt. Sen. Jim King, R-Jacksonville, who championed the secrecy of autopsy photos in Florida last spring after the death of Dale Earnhardt, delivered a perfect postmortem. "I don't know anybody who serves in politics who's a logical person who feels that any good can come from secretiveness and not being open," King said. "We're probably going to make some mistakes. We may well over-react." What the Legislature does in the open is scary enough. What they might do when no one is watching is a lot scarier. -- Steve Bousquet is the Times deputy capital bureau chief.
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Times columns today Steve Bousquet John Romano Sandra Thompson |
