Fla. officials' knowledge of freedom of info law is shockingly dismal

[MinnFats]

Newspaper has volunteers, reporters make simple, lawful requests for PUBLIC records. Nearly half -- from city, county, school district etc., unaware of law. One guy gets threatened and harrassed, another threatened with arrest for asking to see public documents! This kind of Bullshit is typical in the Land of Bush

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040207/NEWS/402070642


(Jeb Bush's OWN OFFICE was the only one of six state offices to fail the test): Snippet --

But Bush spokeswoman Alia Faraj said the governor has no authority over the local agencies included in the audit. He can't force sheriffs or municipal and county governments to train their employees, she said.

Asked if there was anything the governor could do to get the word to local agencies that open government is important, Faraj said, "We lead by example."

But the governor's office was the only one of six state agencies audited that failed to comply with the public records law. The volunteer said she was told she would have to give her name and address and fill out or sign a written request form.



Faraj denied that the governor's office violated the law and said the volunteer may have misunderstood what she was told.

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another revealing snippet:

At many agencies, asking for a document immediately sparked suspicion.

Roger Desjarlais, the Broward County administrator, threatened a volunteer by saying, "I can make your life very difficult."

After insisting that the volunteer give his name, Desjarlais used the Internet to identify the volunteer, find his cell phone number and call him after work hours.

In an interview after the audit, Desjarlais denied that he threatened or tried to intimidate the volunteer, who is a reporter with SNN-Channel 6 in Sarasota.



"I just told him, you have not asked me for the information in a way that legally requires me to give it to you," Desjarlais said. He refused to explain what steps he requires to turn over documents.

Desjarlais defended his actions, saying that the volunteer raised suspicion when he declined to explain who he was. Officials across the state had similar misgivings about volunteers who came into their offices.

They cited a number of arbitrary reasons for their suspicions, including the volunteers' hair length, casual dress and, in one case, "the look in his eyes."



Mary Kay Cariseo, executive director of the Florida Association of Counties, said people need to understand that making a public records request can be threatening to public officials.

"You're not looking at e-mails to do something good," she said. "You're trying to find something. You're trying to dig something up when we're trying to be good public servants and run our governments."

That's a key reason why the public records law exists, said Sandra Chance, executive director of the University of Florida's Brechner Center, a nonprofit organization that studies and serves as a resource on public records law.



The ability to inspect government records lets the public police the officials they bankroll with tax dollars.

"The law clearly says that public agencies cannot institute any kind of requirements that inhibit access, or chill this right of access, including requiring people to give their names," Chance said. "Sometimes I think bureaucrats forget that the purpose underlying all of this information is to serve the taxpayers."