Time for Some Sunshine

It's kind of appropriate that as I catch some rays during my spring break, journalists everywhere observe Sunshine Week (March 12-18) in order to remind the public how vital open government is to our society.

All over Texas, news outlets remind us why governments should be forthcoming with public records. The Brownsville Herald links open government to a free country:

A nation that keeps its people informed of its actions generally pursues policies that the people support and are willing to defend. Secretive governments usually exist in the most tyrannical regimes, where paranoid leaders shroud themselves in secrecy. ...

All too often — especially in the Rio Grande Valley — ... [o]nce in office, controlling millions of dollars in tax funds and able to determine who gets chunks of it, many public officials become power brokers who steer public assets and contracts to friends, family and political allies.

Unfortunately, I haven't found much more from Valley media about Sunshine Week. Elsewhere in the state, the Houston Chronicle asks students to submit open records requests to their schools:

The project reflects the importance of such requests in professional reporting. Court filings, verdicts and salaries of public employees are all delicate materials that many in power would prefer to keep to themselves. But these data tell the public how their taxes are spent and laws administered. Public documents are often the only clues that resources are being misused.

The Dallas Morning News edititorializes about how open government laws protect ordinary Texans' right to know vital details such as police reports, school administrator salaries and pollution sites:

Texas' muscular open-records law is the citizen's biggest advocate in dealing with such matters of public interest, all of which would be documented for the common good by people paid with tax dollars.

The Jacksonville (Texas) Daily Progress explains the Texas Public Information Act and reminds us that taxpayers pay public employees' salaries, and therefore we have a right to know how our money gets spent:

If you have a problem with sharing your work and speaking to the public, there’s probably a job for you at Halliburton, but not with a city or school.

The Beamont Enterprise points out that open government laws apply to everybody, not just journalists:

While reporters file many of the requests government agencies receive, parents, teachers and everyone else have as much right to that information as the media.

And the alt weekly San Antonio Current offers some tips for filing open records requests because:

Citizens have a right to complete government information. Public federal, state, or local agencies should not be able to withhold information because it is embarrassing or inconvenient.

This post grows long because I hold this subject very dear to my heart. I'll post more later, but let me leave you with this:

Attention, public employees and elected officials: They are not YOUR records. Those documents belong to ALL OF US. We paid for 'em, so hand 'em over.