Attorney General helps keep state in the Sunshine

Bill McCollum

My View

Today we recognize the start of Sunshine Week, a national initiative that champions the public’s right to know what its government is doing. Sunshine Week has been recognized nationally for several years but was launched in Florida in 2002 by a group of journalists who were seeking to protect the public’s access to its government. Their tenacity and intent is admirable, and the end result has caused Florida to be among the nation’s leaders in providing open access to both government meetings and records.

In Florida, every person has been granted the constitutional right to inspect or copy any public record, with some exemptions, and the Sunshine Law provides a right of access to government proceedings at both the state and local levels. These essential laws afford citizens of our state the ability to see behind the curtain of government and remain involved in the processes that affect their lives. Without this access there is little accountability, and accountability is vital for good government.

I am proud of the key role the Attorney General’s Office plays in keeping Florida’s government open to all Floridians. My office is charged with mediating disputes involving access to public records and provides a mediation program to that effect — a resource that can be requested by any member of the public and was put into action more than 75 times in 2007. The mediation program involves an impartial individual who encourages and facilitates the resolution of a dispute involving access to public records. Our mediators assist the participants in fostering joint problem-solving and exploring settlement alternatives. By allowing parties to resolve issues in an informal mediation process, we prevent expensive and time-consuming litigation, which is often not an option for a citizen who is merely trying to hold his or her government accountable and responsible for its actions.

Often, the Attorney General’s Office is not contacted by members of the public, but instead by members of the media who are standing in for the rest of Florida and holding our government to necessarily high standards.

As with the initiation of Sunshine Sunday, this is an admirable objective and should be facilitated in every manner possible, and my office will continue to facilitate these resolutions in a timely and service-oriented manner.

More information about services related to open records and open government is available on my Web site (http://myfloridalegal.com).

I invite all Floridians, members of the media and general public alike to visit this Web site and learn about the tools and resources my office provides to help hold Florida’s public servants to the standards that make them deserving of recognition as leaders in the nation. Together, we can permit the values which inspired Sunshine Week to last the entire year.

Bill McCollum is Florida's Attorney General. This column appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat.

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