A Senate committee next week will consider a proposal that would shield from release the home addresses of state and local elected officials. The proposal furthers an accelerating trend toward government secrecy in numerous forms, without documented evidence that th secrecy is necessary or beneficial to the public.
The Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee is scheduled Tuesday to take up the bill (SB 268), filed by Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens. The bill would create a public-records exemption for the home addresses of elected officials and also would shield personal information of their spouses and children.
The bill points to threats that elected officials can face. “Public officers are often confronted with making difficult and impactful policy decisions,” the bill says. “As a result, public officers and their families may receive threats, including, but not limited to, verbal threats, harassment, and intimidation, as a result of carrying out their official duties.
Vulnerability to such threats may discourage residents of this state from seeking elected office in order to protect themselves and their families. The Legislature further finds that the harm that may result from the release of such personal identifying and location information outweighs any public benefit that may be derived from the disclosure of the information.” It isn’t clear on what basis or evidence the bill makes those claims. The proposed bill does not yet have a legislative analysis.
A similar exemption applies to judges at all levels, law enforcement and firefighters, along with exemptions for their families’ identifying information, even though instances of harassment at the home of such public employees are extremely rare. An identical exemption for county and city attorneys and their deputies and for employees of clerks of court offices became law last July.
“Florida is no longer the Sunshine State when it comes to transparency,” Michael Barfield, the The Florida Center for Government Accountability’s director of public access, told Reason Magazine last June. “The public’s right to know is headed into darkness.”
–FlaglerLive and News Service of Florida
