By MATT BROWN, Multimedia Director.
This week is Sunshine Week, which means the light will shine on the accountability of public bodies.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors launched the non-profit initiative in 2005 to promote the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know.
Though created by journalists, Sunshine Week is about the public’s right to know what its government is doing.
“Sunshine Week seeks to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government at all levels, and to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger” according to a statement from organizers of the week, celebrated March 15-21.
State and federal versions of the Open Meetings Act requires elected decision-making bodies to do their business in public, and the Freedom of Information Act mandates that most government records are open to public inspection.
It is these Sunshine Laws that have made public everything from Jack White’s guacamole recipe (part of a performance contract with a college) to Kwame Kilpatrick’s secret deals. And the laws guarantee access to police reports, budgets, government salaries and contracts and a host of other data.
Open governments are transparent
Transparency is the operation of a body so it is easily seen what is being performed. This principle is also known as open government, in which citizens have the right to access the government documents to allow for public oversight.
Lisa Lawrason, Associate Professor of Political Science at Delta College, considers transparency a key to democracy.
“In order for the people to hold their Government accountable, which is an essential part of the democratic process, the people have to know what their Government is doing,” she said.
However, Lawrason says that, “There are not many average citizens who will keep track of what the Government is doing,” and, “that is where the media serves an important function, as a watchdog.”
While average citizens may never request records or attend board meetings made open by sunshine laws, the public would be in the dark about many things without the laws.
“If the media doesn’t have access to what is going on [in public bodies], they can’t alert us and we can’t do our job to protect democracy,” Lawrason said.
Having this access proves affective, especially in the case of former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick whose corruption was discovered in documents when The Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, and the Detroit City Council sued under FOIA.
Accountability in the government is not only “being called to account for one’s actions,” but a relationship between individuals. In Paul De Hert’s essay Accountability and System Responsibility states that, “Accountability cannot exist without proper accounting practices; in other words, an absence of accounting means an absence of accountability.”
Every publicly funded institution must adhere to FOIA laws. Delta College, primarily funded by grants, tax and tuition, is no exception. If you would like to file a FOIA regarding Delta College, contact the school’s FOIA officer, Debra Lutz.
“It’s your tax/tuition dollars that allow the operation of the college to continue,” said Lawrason, “and so it is absolutely important for a college like Delta to be open and transparent.”
And local news reporting is endangered, as small papers fold and TV stations face stretched budgets.
“Small town local papers are closing, and going under and often times reporters from these papers are the only ones who would show up [to board meetings],” laments Lawrason. “It is a scary place to be when you get the sense that [public bodies] aren’t accountable to anyone.”
Sunshine started in ‘60s
In the 1960s, the Beatles invaded the US, Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Washington, and the Vietnam War waged on. A blurred line divided civil disobedience and counterculture. In response to this shift in public opinion, liberal reforms occurred under President Lyndon B. Johnson.
One piece of legislation passed during this time was the Freedom of Information Act, though contested by President Johnson under the belief that certain types of information should remain secret.
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was enacted on Independence Day in 1966, providing that any person has a right, enforceable in court, to obtain access to federal agency records.
With nine exemptions, a FOIA request can be made for any agency record.
In response to the Watergate scandal perpetrated by the Nixon administration, Congress overrode President Gerald R. Ford’s veto of the Privacy Act of 1974, passing the act. Following in 1976, The Sunshine Act deemed “every portion of every meeting of an agency shall be open to public observation.”
After multiple limitations amended to FOIA legislation following the 2001 World Trade Center attack, President George W. Bush passed the OPEN Government Act in 2007, citing that “openness promotes effectiveness.”
During the 113th Congress, the FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2014 was introduced. Still debated, and thus unsigned, the bill would make it easier and faster to request and receive information.
Michigan FOIA gets upgrade
On Jan. 15, Gov. Rick Snyder (R-Michigan) signed the most significant reform in Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act in almost forty years.
“A government for the people must also be accountable to its people,” Snyder said in announcing the changes, which take effect in May. “It’s vitally important that state government be transparent and that residents have access to the information they need.”
The reforms:
- Set fee limits
- Establish an appeals process for fees
- Create procedures for responding to and declining requests
According to Snyder, this bill, “made it clear that we in government are working on behalf of our residents, who should not be discouraged from learning about how that government is serving them.”
This bill also provides consequences for entities that don’t respond in a timely manner by requiring that they lower the fees they are charging by 10% for every day the request isn’t filled up to 50%. The amount of time allowed to respond to a request remains 5 business days.
In response to the bill becoming law, Sen. Mike Shirkey (party, city) stated; “Laws like FOIA and the Open Meetings Act are cornerstones for people being able to keep their government accountable – thank you for the help of the many supporters of this bill over the past three years who worked tirelessly to see it be passed.”
The Michigan Press Association was among the supporters.
“Getting this legislation passed was a long process and involved some compromise” said Dirk Milliman, MPA Public Policy Committee Chairman. “We are pleased with the end result as it addresses the two most major concerns expressed by our members with regard to FOIA in Michigan; costs and delays.”