OUR OPINION: During Sunshine Week, the public’s right to know is once again in peril BY THE MIAMI HERALD EDITORIAL HERALDED@MIAMIHERALD.COM As Florida celebrates Sunshine Week and the importance of open government and freedom of information there are some rays of sunshine pushing through the dark clouds of secrecy. One ray: The Florida Legislature ended…
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Without open meetings and accessible records, we’d all be in the dark. BY AMINDA MARQUES GONZALEZ AMARQUES@MIAMIHERALD.COM We simply couldn’t tell the stories readers count on us to report without Florida’s public records and open meetings laws, among the strongest in the country. Our journalists rely on these laws daily, whether attending a municipal meeting…
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BY GARY FINEOUT ASSOCIATED PRESS TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s next governor and other statewide elected officials will have to preserve and make public any documents and emails they send between their election and the time they are officially sworn into office. The Florida Legislature has unanimously passed a bill that was sparked by the embarrassing deletion…
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An anonymous robocall is targeting a Miami Beach commissioner, who says he is under fire because he wants to fire the city manager. BY DSMILEY@MIAMIHERALD.COM BY DAVID SMILEY A Miami Beach commissioner has been accused of violating Florida’s Sunshine laws, and somebody really wants people to know. An anonymous robocall apparently referencing the issue has…
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Carolyn Timmann, the head of Gov. Rick Scott’s very busy Office of Open Government, is leaving to run for clerk of Martin Circuit Court. Timmann has had many a fire, literally and figuratively, to handle during her year in Scott’s administration. (She was the first to smell smoke from the cigar-sparked trash can fire in…
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BY TODD RUGER SARASOTA COUNTY – Detectives in the James Brotherton killing last month got a copy of an amazing piece of evidence: a video of the Port Charlotte man getting shot outside the Gulf Gate Library. That usually means the public will be able to see the video, because it is a key part…
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BY MICHAEL C. BENDER TALLAHASSEE — The Governor’s Office released 87 pages of public records Friday showing e-mails Gov. Rick Scott sent and received in the final days of his transition into office that have yet to be made public. The documents, which the Governor’s Office has had for nearly six months, include about 65…
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EDITORIAL For a governor who promised accountability as a candidate, Rick Scott sure has a lot of explaining to do. Not once, not twice, but now there has been a third incident involving a “technological mix-up” at the governor’s office that has mysteriously resulted in emails evaporating into cyberspace. Like magic — after a public…
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Naked Politics Blog Attorney General Pam Bondi said it was “indefensible” that the state gave state Sen. Mike Fasano a $10,000 estimate for collecting public records regarding Florida pension investments. “I’ve lost sleep over this bill,” Bondi told State Board of Administration Director Ash Williams. Read more here.