Dick Hammerstrom: Sunshine Week

THIS IS NATIONAL Sunshine week, a time for journalists and other public-access advocates to talk about the importance of governing in the sunshine and about the state of public accountability in 2005.

In some ways, in Virginia at least, government is more transparent than ever before.

Residents can easily go online now to check the records and inspections of restaurants, a listing of physicians and their qualifications, and information about day-care centers and assisted-living facilities. They can even find out if violent sexual offenders live in their neighborhood.

The state’s ranking for openness — based largely on existing laws — has improved to fifth in the nation.

A state agency, the Freedom of Information Advisory Council, was formed several years ago to provide advisory opinions on FOI issues and to conduct educational workshops on the state law.

It responds to about 1,200 inquiries annually from government agencies, residents, and journalists. Last year, it issued 26 formal, written opinions, more than half to private citizens.

Yet problems persist.

Some court records are now online, others are not. A disagreement over what should be available continues.

There is no absolute access to police reports — each department in Virginia interprets the law differently. Some make reports readily available online, others decide what, if any, information is made available.

And if police agencies don’t want to release information, they have plenty of ways to hide it.

Thanks to a change in the law, each state agency must now publish its policies about open records and meetings, in plain English. Local governments have no such requirement. Some state and local agencies are wonderfully open to the public; others are woefully not.

For example, several Virginia newspapers recently told the story of a Nelson County couple that spent thousands of dollars and untold number of hours trying to get the most basic information about employee salaries and assignments and spending practices of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The clash continues.

In Louisa County, a reporter requested copies of public documents from the Planning Commission and was accused of harassment, even though the documents sought were clearly routine matters of public record.

In Orange County, the School Board voted to end the contract of its superintendent, but the board assigned a numeric code to the issue that was being voted on. Those in attendance initially had no idea what the board decided, even though state law says the issue to be voted on must be reasonably identified.

There are more, similar stories, throughout the commonwealth.

Though e — mail of elected officials on government business is public record, there is no common method of preserving — and guaranteeing access — to it. Some localities do not preserve e — mail at all and, in one city, just one person has access to it from a single computer. Who know what happens if that person is gone, or the computer file becomes corrupted.

On a national level, obtaining information from the federal government is even more difficult, especially since 9/11. Some information is withheld for security reasons, but other nonterrorism information, such as meat inspections, also is difficult to obtain.

That’s why a bill sponsored by Sens. John Cornyn, R — Texas, and Patrick Leahy, D — Vt., proposes creation of a 16-member advisory commission that would conduct a study to determine ways to speed the release of records under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Cornyn and Leahy will introduce it this week.

Under the act, government agencies must give the public access to government information unless the information falls under certain exemptions. However, the agencies can decide on their own to disclose the exempted information.

Another bill sponsored by Cornyn and Leahy, called the OPEN Government Act of 2005, seeks to speed release of information sought in FOIA requests, which now can take months or years.

It’s been endorsed by dozens of interest groups in journalism and across the political spectrum, from the liberal American Civil Liberties Union to the conservative Heritage Foundation.

A Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee conducted hearings on it yesterday.

But tougher laws alone won’t solve all the problems. Too many in government hold to the belief that public information should not be public — even though it was compiled with our tax dollars.

The fight for open government will be won or lost when citizens join it — with their votes. (Dick Hammerstrom is a local news editor at the Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star