03/11/07

Sunshine Week 2007

A look at how open government cases are handled in some states



By The Associated Press

The Associated Press surveyed all 50 states to find out how open government or so-called sunshine laws are enforced. Reporters in every state collected information on penalties for breaking the laws; state agencies, if any, that oversee compliance with the laws; and whether any government or nongovernment group tracks citizen complaints.

In the handful of states where systematic records were kept, AP reporters gathered data on complaints made, investigations and their outcome, and remedies or penalties.

These are the highlights of those records, plus a section on the federal requests for records, offering a glimpse into how open government laws are enforced nationwide.

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-- In Connecticut, the Freedom of Information Commission has unique, sweeping authority to oversee sunshine laws. It received 1,893 complaints; heard 575 cases, and found violations in 219 of them. It levied seven fines, ranging from $50 to $500; in five cases, it ordered municipal officials to attend a workshop on the law; and in one case, ordered an ethics commission to accurately recreate the minutes of a private meeting it held.

-- In Iowa, the Citizens' Aide/Ombudsman received 445 complaints. The office found that 63 -- or 14 percent -- were substantiated. The office relied upon its rulings to convince officials to change their behavior, and did not track the outcome of what happened if cases went on to court. Among the 63 substantiated cases -- 22 were resolved informally with an inquiry from the ombudsman; 30 were resolved informally after the ombudsman found unreasonable or illegal behavior, but short of a formal report; three brought formal, critical reports; at least two cases were in the courts; four resulted in proposed legislation; and four were left open.

-- In Kentucky, the attorney general's office received 1,073 complaints that people were denied records or access to meetings. It found there were 346 violations, or 32 percent of complaints. There were no penalties, but the office said that records were made public in 592 cases, either voluntarily or after the attorney general's opinion was made public.

-- In Rhode Island, the attorney general's civil division received 194 complaints. It completed work on 173 cases, and substantiated 82 violations, or in 47 percent of closed cases. It brought two lawsuits, winning a $1,500 fine against the town of Barrington, while the other is still pending. In 49 cases, it issued warnings that the division says should bring "corrective action."

-- Nebraska's attorney general received 106 complaints, and found eight violations of the law. The office chose not to prosecute or levy any fines, though it strongly suggested that one county board of supervisors conduct another vote to fill a seat on its board, this time in public.

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The federal government does a much more thorough job of tracking the outcome of requests, particularly for documents, which are covered by the Freedom of Information Act.

Three agencies -- Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration -- receive an enormous number of requests -- 19 million in 2005. They were almost always for personal records and were almost always granted.

The other federal agencies received just over a half-million queries, and provided all or some information 63 percent of the time.

Just over a third were either denied or otherwise not provided, according to an analysis by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government.

Unmet requests fared poorly upon appeal. Administrative appeals -- 7,783 of them in 2005 -- failed four out of five times. Just 426 cases went to court, with the government winning more than half the time. Plaintiffs won a complete victory only 14 times, and won a partial judgment 47 times, CJOG found.