Staff reports on open government

Although most state agencies in Tallahassee passed an independent public records audit, similar agencies did not fare as well in their branch offices in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties.

The Herald-Tribune participated in the statewide audit by requesting travel records at 11 agencies. Nearly half of those agencies refused to provide the records or placed improper requirements on the person requesting the records.

At the Department of Children and Families office in Bradenton, a woman who identified herself only as the office director said no one in the office ever travels and they would not release travel records even if they did. “That’s not something we just give out. You could be trying to track one of our people down to kill them.”

The Herald-Tribune, like other newspaper around the state, had asked for the most recent travel reimbursement voucher or similar document for the top administrator in each office.

Such records are clearly public under Florida statute and would not reveal where an employee was going to be, only where they had most recently traveled.

Even so, reporters identifying themselves only as citizens often were greeted with skepticism and a barrage of questions about who they were and why they wanted the records. State law prevents government officials from demanding to know such information before turning over public documents. State Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, said he supports the right of journalists and legitimate watchdogs to obtain public records. But he defended his secretary’s refusal to turn over a travel voucher to a reporter acting as a citizen as part of the audit last week.

“If I was sitting at that desk, I might have said ‘who are you...’” Bennett said after the audit. “Especially today with the security problems and everything like that.”

Bennett said he thinks Florida records laws should be changed to allow government agencies to ask for identification and reason the records are needed. He said he would not want his regular travel patterns to be publicly revealed and fall into the wrong hands.

But Adria Harper, director of Florida’s First Amendment Foundation, said concerns about someone stalking a government employee were clearly not an issue in the audit because only information on one trip was requested. And even if if such concerns were valid, they do not override the fact that the public has a right to examine how officials are spending tax dollars, she said.

“The fact is, only the Legislature can create a specific exemption to the public records law,” Harper said. “We can’t just make up reasons as they come along.”

Statewide, newspapers and other volunteers organized by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors audited about 25 agencies in 12 counties. Of those, 60 percent did not provide the records or required auditors to provide information they are not allowed to under Florida law.

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