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‘Sunshine Week’ Began Sunday
March 16, 2008
The following was submitted by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum:
On Sunday, we will recognize the start of Sunshine Week, a national initiative that champions the public’s right to know what its government is doing. Sunshine Week has been recognized nationally for several years but was first launched in Florida in 2002 by a group of journalists who were seeking to protect the public’s access to its government.
In Florida, every person has been granted the Constitutional right to inspect or copy any public record with some exemptions, and the Sunshine Law provides a right of access to government proceedings at both the state and local levels. Without this access there is little accountability, and accountability is vital for good government.
I am proud of the key role the Attorney General’s Office plays in keeping Florida’s government open to all Floridians. My office is charged with mediating disputes involving access to public records and provides a mediation program to that effect – a resource which can be requested by any member of the public and was put into action more than 75 times in 2007. The mediation program involves an impartial individual who encourages and facilitates the resolution of a dispute involving access to public records. By allowing parties to resolve issues in an informal mediation process, we prevent expensive and time-consuming litigation which is often not an option for a citizen who is merely trying to hold his or her government accountable and responsible for its actions.
Often, the Attorney General’s Office is not contacted by members of the public, but instead by members of the media who are standing in for the rest of Florida and holding our government to necessarily high standards. As with the initiation of Sunshine Sunday, this is an admirable objective and should be facilitated in every manner possible, and my office will continue to facilitate these resolutions in a timely and service-oriented manner. More information about services related to open records and open government is available on my website, http://myfloridalegal.com.
I invite all Floridians, members of the media and general public alike, to visit this website and learn about the tools and resources my office provides to help hold Florida’s public servants to the standards which make them deserving of recognition as leaders in the nation. Together, we can permit the values which inspired Sunshine Week to last the entire year.
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