Sunshine Week sheds light on issue of open government

This week is Sunshine Week. We're not talking about the weather but about a week devoted to "sunshine" when it comes to discussing the importance to the public of open government.

Sunshine week is not about journalists getting on a soapbox - it is about you. It is about protecting your rights to access public records, provide transparency in government and to keep our elected officials and public officials (AKA "civil servants") accountable.

This nonpartisan issue concerns many people. A survey released Sunday by the organizers of Sunshine Week, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors, found that 74 percent of the more than 1,000 American adults polled in February view the federal government as somewhat or very secretive.

"In a democracy whose survival depends on openness, it's sobering to see that three-fourths of Americans now view their national government as somewhat or very secretive," said David Westphal, co-chairman of the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Freedom of Information Committee.

The legislation to preserve open meetings has been a mixed bag. In California, the Brown Act (named after Assemblyman Ralph M. Brown from Turlock) was enacted in 1953 to address mounting concern about informal, secretive meetings held by elected local officials.

It reads: "The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created."

In the past 50 years, though, the Brown Act has been eroded by government officials' efforts to block access to public records and court decisions. Enforcement of open meetings and public records is now left up to private lawsuits.

Nowhere is the role of preserving open government more vital than in small communities such as ours. At a recent speech to members of the Sons in Retirement in Grass Valley, a member stood up and said to us: "Thank you for being a government watchdog."

The Union has written regularly about issues related to transparency in government and conflicts of interest and has filed Freedom of Information Act requests to gain access to public documents. Examples include an FOI request to gain public access to plans about a controversial development on Donner Summit and candidates who were interviewed for the county clerk-recorder spot that was vacated by Kathleen Smith last year. We also have published the salaries of elected officials and public officials.

Gaining access to photograph a defendant in a courtroom has proven unnecessarily challenging in some instances. In one case, the man in the courtroom hallway already had been photographed in the courtroom, as well as convicted. In another, we worried about "prior restraint," or government's actions to keep material from being published. Cameras help uphold the integrity of our judicial process and courtroom proceedings.

Last year, the county district attorney said he would no longer make police reports available to the public through court files after the undersheriff complained he didn't like seeing one of the reports in the newspaper. The case involved an animal control officer, under the sheriff's jurisdiction, who allegedly asked a narcotics officer to conceal evidence during her arrest for possessing meth while in uniform.

"San Francisco has a sunshine ordinance that requires this information to be disclosed," a lawyer for the California Newspaper Publishers Association said at the time. "Most large cities see the value in public understanding." Smaller communities and newspapers may be at a disadvantage, however, because of their more limited resources in challenging the decisions.

All told, we think the vast majority of our government officials do a good job of acknowledging the importance of open government for the public, though there's always room for improvement. They should embrace the idea because it helps build trust - often among constituents who are skeptical of them. What better way to win their trust?

Bigger challenges exist in communities with no local newspaper watching government. In the remote community of Saltville, Va., (pop. 2,200) citizens are taking matters into their own hands. "Some residents say they believe town meetings are conducted improperly, they feel they do not know what's going on and some claim there have been cases of favoritism and cronyism," reports the Briston Harold-Courier. As a result, a group of local residents plans to form a group to send people to committee meetings and post updates on a Web site.

The Internet has helped foster transparency in government in other ways. We believe strongly in posting public documents on the Internet - and do. As many of you know, the Sacramento Bee has posted a searchable-by-name database of state worker salaries at sacbee.com. It has been met with praise but also some stiff opposition. We support the effort but think the database would have been more complete if it had included the generous health and retirement benefits packages, as well as other perks.

Another effort will soon get underway to provide access to state and local public records on the Internet. Launched by Sacramento-based Californians Aware, it will be the first public records' request service of its kind in California. The law firm of Cooper, White & Cooper in San Francisco has provided a grant to launch the service. More information is available at www.calaware.org.

In a presidential election year, not just during Sunshine Week, it's a good time to take note of how issues such as transparency, accountability and trust among our government is resonating with the public. To us, it seems like a work in progress.