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Open records watchers scurrying since attacks
©Associated Press TALLAHASSEE -- Though not as high profile or appreciated as the role firefighters, police and the military have played since the Sept. 11 attacks, the events that day created a lot of work and worry for the First Amendment Foundation. Lawmakers' response to the attacks sent the open government watchdog group into alert mode -- quite literally -- dashing off e-mails warning the media and other interested parties about several plans to close off public records. The topic found a wide audience. First Amendment Foundation executive director Barbara Petersen said she fielded calls from Glamour, the liberal Mother Jones and conservative New Republic all wanting to hear more about what was going on with Florida's public records laws. Gov. Jeb Bush called special sessions of the Legislature in October and November to balance the budget. Lawmakers also saw it as an opportunity to immediately address security concerns after the terrorist attacks. Among bills that created anti-terrorism task forces and established tougher criminal sentences for terrorists were a slew of measures that attempt to close records. "We had that sort of typical legislative knee-jerk response," Petersen said. "Let's close access to everything." That is a frightening prospect to some in a state where records access protected by the Sunshine Law is considered to be among the most open in the country. Petersen found herself working 12 hour days with no time off on weekends keeping up with the bills, analyzing them and reacting. "If the legislators . . . are willing to work with us to try to fix a bill we can all agree on, then we just fix it. If we don't agree with the justification, if people are not willing to look at the constitutional ramifications, then we'll put out the alerts and try to bring public attention to it," she said. She doesn't just attack the bad. She also helps tweak language of bills the foundation agrees with. Though she was troubled by many of the proposals brought out during the special sessions, she was satisfied with the four bills that eventually passed and signed by Bush. The bills created public records exemptions for security system plans of any property owned or leased by the state, hospitals' security plans, information on pharmaceutical supplies stockpiled to respond to terrorist attacks, and information requests made by law enforcement agencies as part of an investigation. She successfully argued against several others, including a proposal to allow the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to temporarily block access to otherwise public records. And she worked with lawmakers to eliminate language in the pharmaceutical records bill that would have kept the costs of drugs and information on the state's overall supply secret. "She should be commended for the work she did," said Sen. Rod Smith, D-Gainesville and vice chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee. "There are things that passed the way they did because of her input . . . She helped stop some things she felt very strongly were not in the best interest of Floridians." At times, the normally mild-mannered Petersen's cool was tested by some of the measures pushed during the sessions and tactics by senators to take them up with little notice. At one point she slammed a computer keyboard so hard it broke and on another day she caused alarm in her doctor's office. "They took my blood pressure and it was stunning," she said. "My eyes have finally stopped twitching."
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From the Times state desk
From the state wire
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