Know what your government is doing

Sunshine Week, which is March 13 to 19, may seem like a contrived and perhaps meaningless non-event to many who believe their lives are not directly affected by the fight to make and keep government and its many agencies transparent. It even sounds a little bit benign, doesn’t it? A week of sunshine certainly would be welcome after a very cloudy winter. But in the years since the American Society of News Editors launched Sunshine Week in 2005, every year has brought its own challenges and reasons to keep alive an awareness of the need for open information. The idea for a week to promote the public’s right to know originated in Florida, where Sunshine Sunday was begun by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors in 2002. Florida’s action was in response to steps taken by a number of state legislators there to hinder access to public records. Steps continue to be taken by legislators across the country, including in Connecticut, that make it more difficult to obtain information on every branch of government.One might think that with so much information now available online there would be less need for the media and the public to oversee government openness. Indeed, more information than ever relating to the judicial, legislative and executive branches of government can be found by those who are searching for it. Yet so much of the business of government happens in meetings large and small, and it can be easy for both citizens and officials to miss some action taken at these meetings that could keep information hidden from public view. The universal use of digital communication, for instance, can also have a detrimental effect on keeping information open. The temptation can be too strong to conduct what are essentially closed meetings out of view of the public online using e-mail, text messaging, Twitter, etc. All public servants’ lives are busy now; wouldn’t it just be easier, some may think, to have an e-mail or texting conversation that leads to a quicker decision once they get into a meeting? Not if there’s a quorum discussing the people’s business out of their view. There have been boards in Connecticut, believe it or not, whose members have been observed texting one another during an open meeting, keeping that part of their discussion secret even from those directly observing them. This year, in Connecticut, there are a couple of bills before the Legislature that would put the police under greater public surveillance. One would require that police interrogations be taped. Another clarifies the fact that citizens are allowed to photograph or videotape police actions. The latter bill, proposed by state Sen. Martin Looney (D-11), also authorizes “a person to bring a civil action for damages against a police officer who has interfered with such person’s right to photograph or videotape an event if such person’s actions did not prevent or hinder the police officer performing his or her duties.” Bills can change, live or die, quickly during the Legislative session for a variety of reasons, but it should be of some interest to citizens of Connecticut to know what happens to these bills and others that would directly affect their right to know. Go to www.ct.gov to see the bills now before the General Assembly. In a year when people in a string of countries across the globe have taken to the streets to demand power over their own destinies and greater knowledge of and control over their governance, Americans should seriously value their own access to open government now more than ever. For more on Sunshine Week and to find a model open-government proclamation that can be used by individuals and community groups to fight for greater transparency in government, go to www.sunshineweek.org or e-mail publisher@lakevillejournal.com.