Better Government Association

Open-government laws written for the public not always obeyed

Open government is not always open.

Sunday, Mar 11, 2007 - 01:30 AM

by: David McGee
Staff Writer

Meetings are conducted without adequate notice and bureaucratic roadblocks impede access to public records, such as police reports, 911 tapes, e-mail of county or city employees, and court records, among others. And it happens at the local, state and federal levels.

To call attention to the problem and raise the public’s awareness of its rights, this newspaper and others across the country are celebrating Sunshine Week beginning today and ending Saturday.

Established by journalists in 2002, Sunshine Week is a national initiative intended to increase public awareness about open government, freedom of information and the public’s right to know.

The public should be just as concerned about open government as the news media, said Frank Gibson, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government.

"These open records and open-meeting laws were not written for the benefit of the press," Gibson said. "They were written because the founders of our country – Madison, Jefferson and Franklin – did not trust government. They knew there needed to be a system of checks and balances.

"Openness in government is how the public is given a chance to know what is going on. It’s more a citizen problem than a press problem," Gibson said.

"Democracy works best when voters are informed about what is going on," said Forrest "Frosty" Landon, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. "Most people in government are trying to do the right thing. But not everybody is."

Laws that govern open records and open meetings carry no special privileges for journalists.

"The fight for information with state and local government was never a fight between government and journalists," Landon said. "Journalists are surrogates for all citizens."

Maintaining or improving the public’s access to government is a constant challenge.

"It’s always a marathon, not a sprint," Landon said. "But every year, some really bad bills get introduced that would sharply curb citizen rights, but most of those bad bills get killed, amended or sent to the [Virginia] Freedom of Information Advisory Council."

The council – which reviews and issues opinions about open government issues – responded to more than 1,800 queries in 2006 – the most in the organization’s seven-year history.

The Tennessee Coalition on Open Government received an average of one complaint per week about illegal meetings during the first 10 months of last year – a 45 percent increase.

Violations of open meetings or open records laws get more attention at the state or federal level, Gibson said. But the public should also pay close attention to town, city and county boards and commissions because their actions often directly affect people’s lives.

According to a 2006 poll, 56 percent of Tennessee voters surveyed believe state government conducts much of its business in secret, Gibson said. That was up from 50 percent in a 2004 poll.

Less than a third of voters polled believe state government operates in the open.

"Very little has been done to improve the [Tennessee] open meetings and records laws since they were written," Gibson said. "But it seems every year the legislature adds more exceptions. Now there are over 230 exceptions to the records law."

Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act has more than 100 exceptions for open records and 35 regarding open meetings. Overall, Virginia residents fare better than their neighbors in the Volunteer state, Landon said.

Virginia law, he noted, clearly defines specific reasons for meetings to be closed to the public and media. It includes a process and timetable for government to respond to records requests and specific steps for citizens to follow if a request is denied.

"I think generally there’s a strong recognition by the General Assembly that we need to protect citizen rights to access government meetings and public records," Landon said.

Virginia ranks among the 10 best states for public access, according to a 2002 national survey by the independent Better Government Association.

The same survey ranked Tennessee’s open records law and records access 44th nationally.

"There is no appeals process. If a citizen is denied a record, their only option is to go hire a lawyer and take the official or agency to court," Gibson said. "Both are citizen-enforced and there are no penalties."

In Tennessee, the law includes no provision of fines for government officials who hold a secret meeting or deny access to public records.

Last year, the Tennessee General Assembly failed to act on a coalition-backed bill that would impose penalties for open meetings law violations and reimburse the legal fees of citizens who challenge and win.

Instead, lawmakers established a study committee to review the issue and make recommendations by next February.

Gibson said he hopes whatever the committee recommends will serve as a "road map" to improve public access.

In Virginia, the FOIA Council, state coalition and lawmakers are currently wrestling with questions about access to vital information in the wake of recent national security policy changes and concerns about identity theft.

"These are complex issues about privacy and personal information," Landon said. "Street addresses are important to make sure someone lives in a district or dates of birth to make sure someone is old enough to be tried as an adult.

"Do we only list a part of a Social Security number, to identify two people with the same names?

"These are the kinds of issues that make the eyes glaze over, but it can become an important part of public policy," Landon added.

dmcgee@bristolnews.com