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Reporter invokes her state’s
public-records laws -- and triumphs
By Isabelle Gan
Special to chipsquinn.org
Posted: March 18, 2004
Isabelle Gan |
My heart raced. The adrenaline pumped. It was midday on a fine Monday, and
a city consultant was trying to ruin it. He was blocking my access to a list
of 78 applicants for Vero Beach’s city manager opening.
I needed that list for the next day’s newspaper. The stack of resumes was at
the consultant's office, about two hours away.
“That's not a reasonable request,” he said when I asked that he fax me the
list. I would be getting a list during a city council meeting the next day anyway,
he said. Couldn’t it wait until then?
No. It couldn’t.
My editor was clear: Get that list for tomorrow. Get the full list of applicants
in the newspaper before the city council pares it down to semifinalists.
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State open-government laws
Looking for information on your state’s laws?
Attorney and legal scholar Ann Taylor Schwing offers a
state-by-state guide.
You also can use the Internet. Check search engines for: “(Your state’s) Sunshine
Laws,” “(Your state’s) public record laws,” “(Your state’s) open government
laws,” or (“Your state’s) attorney general.” |
The problem at hand wasn't grand on the journalism scale. It was hardly a Watergate.
But the source’s refusal to make the list available was a violation of the law
-- that wonderful journalists’ tool known as open-government (or “sunshine”)
laws designed to ensure public access to governmental meetings and records.
The list of applicants for the city job is public record. Regardless of his
non-public status, the consultant should have made the list available to anybody
-- journalist or citizen -- who requested it.
My editor was livid. He picked up the phone and called the consultant, a former
city councilman.
I stood outside my editor’s office and listened. “Well, my concern is the public
won't know who these applicants are,” my editor said. “That means the public
won't be able to voice their opinion about who should be city manager."
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What is a Sunshine Law?
Sunshine Laws require that all meetings of boards or commissions of state,
county, municipal or political agencies or authorities (except as exempted by
state constitutions) remain open to the public. They stipulate that no resolution,
rule, regulation or formal action can be considered binding unless it is made
at a public meeting. These also are called “open-meeting laws.”
Public-record laws require the same open access to records having to do with
government business.
Background on these laws is available on the Freedom Forum’s
First
Amendment Center site.
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I thought to myself, “That's a nice little argument to tuck away for future
sunshine-law battles.” (Rule 1: In a potential sunshine-law violation, your
editor is your first and best ally.)
I offered to drive to the consultant’s office so he wouldn't have the “unreasonable”
task of faxing me the resumes.
“I will not accommodate that,” he said. “I can't have you traipsing around
my office rummaging through my files.”
It was time to try a different approach. So I called the city attorney.
“We agree wholeheartedly that (the resumes) are public records,” the city attorney
said.
He talked to the consultant himself.
Soon, the consultant called to say that he would fax me the list in 1 ½ hours.
“Tell me exactly what you need,” he said.
Wow, I couldn't believe it. We won. We got the names and biographical information
on the applicants. All this happened in two hours and in time for the next day’s
newspaper.
Of course, typing those 78 names into my story wasn’t as much fun.
A list of city manager hopefuls might not be Pulitzer Prize material, but invoking
the law to get the list was just as exciting. The published list got reviews
from readers who pointed to applicants who interested them.
Those readers had no idea the battle it took to publish the list.
Postscript: In an editorial that followed, the Press Journal in Vero
Beach, Fla., praised the city attorney for ensuring
that the city complies with open-records laws. Readers were well served by his
actions, the newspaper said.
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