The Sunshine Law may try to promote transparency in Florida’s government, but the Sunshine State fails when it comes to government accountability and transparency, receiving a D- from a recent report from the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity.
The report analyzed the existence, effectiveness, and accessibility (i.e. citizen access) of key governance and anti-corruption mechanisms through a qualitative and indicator-based research process.
The study looked at 13 different categories to rank government transparency, including public access to information, political financing, electorial oversight and the state budget processes.
In the end, Florida ranked 30th out of all 50 states in the report, dropping an entire letter grade from a C- in 2012, the last time the study was conducted.
Florida’s biggest problem, the study says, is its noncompliance laws, which can cause problems for reporters trying to get public documents.
“The statutes create a program through the attorney general’s office that offers mediation at no cost,” read the report. “But should the parties not be satisfied with the program's non-binding decisions, a criminal complaint can be filed with the state attorney, which may or may not be investigated. After that, a civil suit is the final option.”
The report says it’s no wonder state agencies seem inclined to withhold documents because state agencies don’t face many consequences for noncompliance.
The study used state public records activist Joel Chandler to quantify just how often state agencies don’t hand over public records -- according to Chandler, 56 percent of his public records requests were rebuffed in 2014 despite a 2013 law which requires public agencies to include new provisions in service contracts confirming the contractors’ obligations under the Public Records Act.
The study also notes Florida’s 2013 ethics reforms didn’t have quite their intended impact, with the scores in those categories affected by the change dropping.
In 2013, a law eliminated committees of continuous existence which ended unlimited fundraising, with those committees eventually being replaced with political action committees, which have spending caps and are generally easier to track.
The ethics reform law also changed individual contribution limits to $3,000, and individuals can still give as much money as they want to political action committees.
Lobbying regulation remains generally weak in Florida, the study says, but there have been some minor strides in recent years with new laws prohibiting former state lawmakers from lobbying for any state agencies. Earlier this year, Florida also conducted a random audit of lobbyist compensation reports, which found some state lobbyists were underreporting and overreporting their compensation numbers.
See the full report and methodology here.
