Former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Dick Pettigrew writes an OPED in the Miami Herald today, concerning the way in which city government appears to have institutionalized secrecy; thwarting people from having access to information related to complex development schemes that, in effect, allow developers, their lobbyists and engineering consultants to sit in the same room with agency staff far, far from the sunshine that government is supposed to provide.
How did this happen? And is it worse today than it has been in the past?
As a civic activist for over twenty five years, I don't recall any golden era of open government in Florida. From my first dealings with the South Florida Water Management District and state agencies like the Florida Department of Environmental Protection or of Community Affairs, I understood from staff positioning on public information or details on permitting, that in their view the citizen is the enemy.
How this works is on display every time citizens go to County Hall or the City Commission to protest a zoning approval. The developers and their representatives are chummy on the sidelines with regulators while citizens in the audience are on the defensive. Before they even get to the microphone to speak to elected officials on the dais, they are already victims of "due process".
Tragically, as Pettigrew notes, the courts are not much help. The judicial system should provide the fabled check and balance, but -- as Pettigrew also notes -- the expense of keeping up with judicial processes is most times more than ordinary citizens can bear.
At Eye On Miami, we witnessed the relationship between government and citizens take a nose-dive when local freedom of information requests began to be accompanied with outrageously high bills for copying documents. It was as if to say to the inquisitive, "fuck you".
The insider deal for the Marlins Stadium, after the Miami Heat Arena and the Performing Arsht Center, was a watershed event in the suppression of open government in Miami. For the Marlins Stadium, there were so many false pretenses and lies used by the City of Miami and the County, together, that insiders -- especially those with a conscience -- thought to themselves, "if we can invent an economic argument that sounds reasonable, we can get anything done." To leaders of that era, these are credentials not black marks on their personal histories.
In state government, Gov. Rick Scott raised the secrecy bar to unattainable heights. And in the federal arena, the continuous war against terror has been a de facto surrendering of privacy in favor of government secrecy. There is no question that local elected officials are influenced by the atmospherics of secrecy from above.
I don't yearn for a past golden era of open government in Florida, because there was none. What exists today, though, does feel qualitatively different. Some insiders gloat, "Miami has grown up as a major American city". Too bad it has grown into a bully; insulted from criticism and hardened against reform.
Op-Ed
May 28, 2015
City keeps development deals a secret
MIAMI HERALD
BY RICHARD PETTIGREW
rapettig@aol.com
Almost 50 years ago, changes to Florida’s Constitution and laws guaranteed access to public meetings and records, assuring residents the right to know what their government is doing. These reforms were enacted to counter widespread corruption and set a new standard for “sunshine” in state and local government.
Sadly, in today’s city of Miami a small group of officials is aggressively working to keep the public in the dark, employing a cloak of secrecy to advance controversial deals.
Read more »How did this happen? And is it worse today than it has been in the past?
How this works is on display every time citizens go to County Hall or the City Commission to protest a zoning approval. The developers and their representatives are chummy on the sidelines with regulators while citizens in the audience are on the defensive. Before they even get to the microphone to speak to elected officials on the dais, they are already victims of "due process".
Tragically, as Pettigrew notes, the courts are not much help. The judicial system should provide the fabled check and balance, but -- as Pettigrew also notes -- the expense of keeping up with judicial processes is most times more than ordinary citizens can bear.
At Eye On Miami, we witnessed the relationship between government and citizens take a nose-dive when local freedom of information requests began to be accompanied with outrageously high bills for copying documents. It was as if to say to the inquisitive, "fuck you".
The insider deal for the Marlins Stadium, after the Miami Heat Arena and the Performing Arsht Center, was a watershed event in the suppression of open government in Miami. For the Marlins Stadium, there were so many false pretenses and lies used by the City of Miami and the County, together, that insiders -- especially those with a conscience -- thought to themselves, "if we can invent an economic argument that sounds reasonable, we can get anything done." To leaders of that era, these are credentials not black marks on their personal histories.
In state government, Gov. Rick Scott raised the secrecy bar to unattainable heights. And in the federal arena, the continuous war against terror has been a de facto surrendering of privacy in favor of government secrecy. There is no question that local elected officials are influenced by the atmospherics of secrecy from above.
I don't yearn for a past golden era of open government in Florida, because there was none. What exists today, though, does feel qualitatively different. Some insiders gloat, "Miami has grown up as a major American city". Too bad it has grown into a bully; insulted from criticism and hardened against reform.
Op-Ed
May 28, 2015
City keeps development deals a secret
MIAMI HERALD
BY RICHARD PETTIGREW
rapettig@aol.com
Almost 50 years ago, changes to Florida’s Constitution and laws guaranteed access to public meetings and records, assuring residents the right to know what their government is doing. These reforms were enacted to counter widespread corruption and set a new standard for “sunshine” in state and local government.
Sadly, in today’s city of Miami a small group of officials is aggressively working to keep the public in the dark, employing a cloak of secrecy to advance controversial deals.
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