Journalist: 'Bureaucratic blockades' abound when it comes to access public records in Ohio

Many people don’t realize the value of access to public records, meetings and courtrooms until they need it.

So it might be easy to sit back and say “meh,” when another headline like this one appears: “Republican lawmakers bar journalists from statehouse floors.”

The Associated Press wrote that story on Feb. 18, and it sent a chill down my spine.

It also signaled the need for Sunshine Week, which begins today and continues through Saturday to remind Americans why it’s important for all of us to celebrate and protect access to public information. They’re called “sunshine laws” because the bright light of sunshine — public scrutiny — is the best disinfectant against ineptitude, negligence and corruption in a democratic government.

More:Sunshine Week: Public records allow Ohioans to ferret out fact, call out fiction

Lawmakers in Iowa, Kansas and Utah have taken steps to limit reporters’ access to areas of their statehouses where reporters traditionally have represented the public in seeking information and answers to questions about state government.

“Placing restrictions on journalists in the Senate chamber suggests there is something to hide, or that leadership is taking unwarranted and unnecessary retaliation against reporters,” former Kansas lawmaker Steve Morris wrote in an opinion column in the Kansas Reflector.

Morris, who led Republicans in the Kansas Senate from 2005 to 2013, wrote that as a politician and a news consumer, he saw the benefits of having journalists observe and report from a statehouse floor. When discussions draw considerable public interest, he wrote, people want to know how their lawmakers are reacting, which at times can include body language like eye-rolls or enthusiastic gestures.

“Reporters are our avenue to see what’s going on,” he wrote.

“Especially when there’s something controversial,” he added. “The session adjourns, and members skedaddle out of there rapidly so it’s hard for journalists to get to them, unlike when they’re on the floor they can immediately get to them.” Sunshine Week was launched in 2005 by the American Society of News Editors — now News Leaders Association — to create awareness about such efforts to erode public access and has become an enduring initiative to promote open government.

It celebrates your right to know, and it’s important to remember that when you read headlines about barring journalists from the places where the people’s business is being conducted — because reporters are there to observe, listen and ask the questions you might ask if you were able to attend the same meetings.

Reporters seek access more often than the average person — on your behalf, because you have a job and a family and obligations that don’t allow time for meetings and records searches.

More:From the editor: Sunshine Week highlights need to shine light on government, society

But make no mistake: Public records and meetings exist for the good of the public — for you. Reporters are members of the public and have the same access as anyone else. Journalists need that access to do their work on your behalf, so they fight, when necessary, against efforts to block or erode access.

Your right to know extends much deeper into our government than meetings and hearings to records on many aspects of our lives. Awareness of the importance of those records is never more acute than when a bureaucrat, elected official or even a judge says, “no,” you can’t have access.

Fact is, they’re often wrong about that.

They say “no” because it’s easier than doing their due diligence to determine whether a particular record or hearing is truly exempted from the Ohio public access laws.

Or they say “no” because they’re afraid their boss will fire them if they say “yes.” The bosses who make them feel that way often are the same elected or appointed officials who also say “no” when members of the public ask for access, and they are breaking the law when they do that.

More:Capitol Insider: More public workers – and family members – exempted from public records

I can’t tell you the number of times readers came to me or other journalists during my 40 years in newspapers pleading for help to cut through the bureaucratic blockades for access to records they needed for all sorts of issues — meeting minutes to learn more about school levies, city expense reports for keeping tabs on spending, fire or police incident reports for insurance claims, health and safety inspection reports to know more about the property next door, or marriage or death records for something as benign as family genealogy.

So we celebrate the laws and we work to make sure public servants follow them. You can join this effort in several ways. One is to plug into Sunshine Week.

I love the suggestions on the Sunshine Week web page for students, which provides a number of links to online guides about the laws and how to file a records request.

More:Ohio Department of Health violated public records law, court finds

For Ohioans — especially public officials — I add this to the list: Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s Sunshine Laws web page: https://bit.ly/3vSDsHV.

It offers a number of resources, including training and a layman’s guide to the laws. All Ohioans should read what has long been called the “yellow book,” because it is the color of sunshine.

It’s the Sunshine Laws Open Government Resource Manual, and anyone who reads it will know when and how to call out a public servant who wrongly says “no” to a request for public information.

Alan D. Miller is a former Dispatch editor who teaches journalism at Denison University. millerad@denison.edu Twitter: @amiller78