This year there are roughly 40 proposals before the Florida Legislature seeking to create exemptions to public records. Historically, the state has been considered a national leader in making its system of government accessible to its citizens — but no more.
Open government advocates are dismayed by the many new attempts at whittling down the state’s transparency.
“The sheer number is remarkable,” says Caroline Klancke, executive director of the Florida Ethics Institute. “I thought in past years, having seven and 14 – I think we got up to 14 a few years ago. This is a spectacular number of potential exemptions that – even when well-intentioned, diminish the public’s right of access that is enshrined in our Constitution.”
One proposal (SB 144/HB1373) exempts the current or former employees of the Judicial Qualifications Commission and their spouses and children, along with their home addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and photographs, the places of employment of their spouses and children, and the names and locations of schools and daycare facilities attended by their children. That commission relates to various legal issues, including reprimanding misconduct.
Other bills seek to exempt from the public records requirements municipal clerks; county and city personnel; emergency physicians; medical examiners; victims of domestic or dating violence; officers involved in use-of-force incidents; people who buy or receive ammunition; sexual assault counselors; mental health and substance abuse counselors; private investigators; members of state retirement plans; all information received by the Office of Financial Regulation as the result of certain kinds of investigations; the records and meetings of Space Florida; and the Parkinson’s Disease Registry.
There are more.
To propose such exemptions, says Bobby Block, executive director of the First Amendment Foundation, it’s legally necessary to show a public benefit.
“Under the law, Chapter 119, which governs public records,” he said, “you have to demonstrate in the bill why this public benefit is more compelling than the Sunshine Law. And if you look at most exemptions – at least the way they’re coming out now – that’s not what you have because they’re afraid.”
Some of those exemptions are understandable and justified in the wake of increasing political violence. But likely not all.
Florida has a constitutional right of privacy. The state Constitution says we have the right to be free of governmental intrusion into our private lives. But that freedom is specifically secondary to the public’s right of access.
What’s more, says Block, there are other ways besides public records to find a potential target. He points to the killings of public officials in Minneapolis last year.
“The names are public and he [the alleged killer] hunted them down with a private service for a pittance,” Block said. “This law is not going to deter bad actors. What it would do is, it would make it very difficult for people in your district to know whether you live where you’re supposed to live.”
Bipartisan courage
Public access and public records are not partisan issues. It’s not a matter of one side getting it right and the other side getting it wrong.
For instance, Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, and Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, are carrying similar measures (SB 770 and HB 437) aimed at making public records more accessible.
Andrade’s bill is now in the House Government Operations Subcommittee. Rouson’s was introduced on Tuesday and is now in the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee.
Said Block, “I applaud Rep. Andrade and Sen. Rouson for their bipartisan courage to do this when they know the powers that be don’t want this.”
In the interest of full disclosure, the Florida Trident’s publisher, Barbara Petersen, drafted an early version of the measure.
Klancke, who has worked for state agencies, says its requirements are daunting.
“They include a 3-day turnaround, a codification in the law that specifies 3 business days for either a public-records response to be made, an estimated cost to be provided, or a denial,” she said. “That 3 days is spectacularly brief. And oftentimes, the question will involve a subject that’s over years. ‘I want all the emails, text messages, memoranda’… And it can touch multiple departments.’”
Rouson doesn’t necessarily insist on the 3 days.
“Timely information is important,” he said. “But if the weak point is 3 days being insufficient to allow a public agency to comply, I’m willing to listen.”
Rouson is also the sponsor of SB 44, which requires agencies subject to the public records laws to provide an electronic option for payment of fees associated with a public records request.
“I support these because they give more accountability to the public when making a request for public records,” he said. “And because they give transparency, and there’s a penalty if the agency refuses to adhere.”
The Bert J. Harris Act seeks to create an exemption to Florida’s open public meetings law to permit “any board or commission of any state agency or authority or any agency or authority of any county, municipal corporation, or political subdivision, and the chief administrative or executive officer of the governmental entity” to meet in private “with the entity’s attorney” within a certain time frame. It provides that specified entities may meet in private with their attorneys to discuss certain claims concerning private property rights but requires that such meetings must be transcribed and that such transcripts will become public records at specified times.
The House measure, HB 655, passed the Civil Justice & Claims Subcommittee with a committee substitute on Wednesday; it was sponsored by Wyman Duggan, R-Jacksonville, and Dan Daley, D-Coral Springs. The Senate bill, SB 332 by Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island, was introduced Tuesday.
Both measures have a number of lobbyists from the Florida League of Cities and the Florida Association of Counties trailing their activities.
‘Terrorizing our communities’
Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith is sponsoring SB 316, which would create visible identification requirements for immigration-based law enforcement officers, known as ICE, who engage directly with the public. It would prohibit law enforcement officers from wearing non-medical face coverings. It would require the State Board of Immigration Enforcement to receive and investigate violations, and penalize violations.
“ICE has been terrorizing our communities,” Smith said. “They’ve picked up thousands of Floridians, many with no criminal record. They’ve dumped them into Alligator Alcatraz, where they’re facing inhumane conditions and being deported away from their families.”
He’s also sponsoring SJR 1406, which would reduce the percentage of the electorate required to amend the state Constitution from 60 to 50 percent plus one.
Smith says if the votes of a simple majority of Floridians had carried the day in 2024, the state would have passed Amendment 3, which would have allowed recreational marijuana for adults which garnered 56 percent of the vote. Likewise, Amendment 4, which would have enshrined a right to abortion before fetal viability in the Florida Constitution, got 57 percent of the vote.
Instead of respecting the wishes of the majority, Smith says, last year lawmakers made it harder to get citizen-led ballot initiatives on the ballot.
“That’s why I’m introducing this proposal to bring the simple rule back that everyone can understand – and that’s majority rules on constitutional amendments.”
Caroline Klancke says the public should know about the sheer volume – the “bumper crop” – of bills that would create exemptions from open government.
“These public records, although broadly defined, are the government’s business. So, the more we abdicate, through exemptions, access to even being able to see the government performing its governmental function, there’s a loss. And it’s to society. And it’s to transparency.”
Margie Menzel has worked at WFSU, the News Service of Florida and Gannett News Service. She earned her B.A. in history at Vanderbilt University and her M.S. in journalism at Florida A&M University. The Florida Trident is an investigative news outlet focusing on government accountability and transparency across Florida. The Trident was created and first published in 2022 by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, a non-profit organization that facilitates local investigative reporting across the state.
