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Published:
Saturday, April 20, 1996
Section: LOCAL
EXEMPTIONS
TO PUBLIC RECORDS LAW GROWING
MARK SILVA
Capital Bureau Chief
Brian
McGuinness
was working the case of a 19-year-old Broward County girl killed
by a drunk driver with a history.
Ten years
before, the same driver injured two other women -- something private
investigator McGuinness was able to learn only from a search of
old state records on drivers and motor vehicles. He was able to
find their stepfather, and, through him, one of the victims. She
came in a wheelchair to testify at the drunk driver's sentencing.
He got the maximum: 15 years.
"It's going
to make a judge think twice about going light on a guy," McGuinness
said of the star witness found in a trail of records.
It will get
tougher to see the records of Florida's 12.2 million drivers,
under a federal law, the Driver's Privacy Protection Act, forcing
states to clamp down. The Florida Senate unanimously approved
its own bill Friday.
The bill (S
766) allows people who want their names, addresses and other identifying
information on driver's license records sealed from public view
to say so. It prohibits anyone but police, insurance companies,
lawyers and tow truck operators from examining these records.
The House is ready to vote.
It's one of
many bills the Legislature is considering this year to restrict
the scope of Florida's far-reaching public records law, which
contains more than 600 exemptions.
In a state
with a long tradition of the most open government in America --
most documents of state and local government and meetings of elected
officials open to the public -- the Legislature each year faces
struggles over closing some of these records or public proceedings.
"This is,
by far, a banner year, in terms of creating new exemptions to
the public's access to records," says lawyer Barbara Petersen,
First Amendment Foundation lobbyist. "There are 75 bills I am
tracking that would make some changes. The vast majority create
new exemptions."
If history
is a guide, most of these bills will either die or get amended
to make them acceptable to critics such as the First Amendment
Foundation. The nonprofit organization, whose members include
lawyers, private citizens and Florida newspapers, is largely financed
by dues paid by newspapers.
Perhaps the
farthest-reaching assault on open government is a bill protecting
the identities of jurors in criminal trials. This won't necessarily
protect jurors from retaliation by people on trial. Defendants
already do, and still will if this bill becomes law, get to know
jurors' names.
The bill (S
202) that also keeps grand jurors' identities secret cleared the
Senate Judiciary Committee and is awaiting full Senate action.
A similar bill (H 47) is ready for House approval.
A compromise
may be coming from the House, with an amendment to say that, instead
of sealing the jurors' identities from the public, they will be
warned in the summons to jury duty that their names are public
if they serve.
Another bill
(H 129) would make it a crime to harass a juror.
"That's the
proper approach, we think," Petersen says. "Deal with all of these
problems by focusing on the behavior, instead of access to records."
There are
others:
- The Senate
approved a bill Friday exempting from the public records law
any information about the identity of someone asking for emergency
help by calling 911. State law protects the names, addresses
and telephone numbers of people calling 911, but this bill (S
1190) protects any other "personal or identifying information"
about the callers. The bill heads to the House, which is ready
to approve its version of the bill (H 2523) next week.
- Rep. Sally
Heyman, D-North Miami Beach, is sponsoring the House's version
of the bill (H 717) sealing driver's license records that's
awaiting Appropriations Committee action.
- Some lawmakers
are seeking more openness in some matters. Sen. Daryl Jones,
D-South Dade, is sponsoring a bill requiring a public hearing
when a county or city wants to settle a lawsuit with a payment
of more than $5,000. This bill (S 674) has cleared the Senate
37-0.
In all these
matters, both Senate President Jim Scott and House Speaker Peter
Wallace have shown willingness to negotiate and prevent bills
from going too far, Petersen says. "I think the leadership in
both chambers is supportive of the public records law."
Reprinted
with written permission of The Miami Herald.
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