Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features

NEWS & FEATURES

Some of the most remarkable Sunshine Week contributions were seen on the news pages—many on the front pages—of newspapers across the nation. Stories included examinations of pending legislation, profiles of residents who used public information to improve the community, expansive guides on how to get government documents, Freedom of Information audit results, and reports on how public records were used to obtain information critical to important news stories.

Throughout, there was an important refrain: How vital protecting and promoting open government is to individuals and the community. Sunshine Week is about the right of all citizens to know what government is doing, and how and why it’s doing it.

Perhaps that was the key to Sunshine Week’s success. But whatever the reason, the coverage produced results. In some areas, it raised awareness among lawmakers, who admitted they learned more about the issue and importance of open government, and among members of the public, who didn’t know they had access to so much information. In other areas, the results were more tangible; restrictive legislation faded away; official policies and procedures were revamped in the wake of FOI audits, and people were empowered to hold lawmakers accountable.

Whether the individual impact was large or small, ethereal or solid, the thousands of Sunshine Week news and feature articles produced in 2005 was coverage that made a difference.

All News Is Local

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features

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Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > Local News

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The Deseret News in Salt Lake City kicked off a five-part Sunshine Week series on local government with a comparison of Utah mayors’ salaries that found significant differences between municipalities. Accompanying the page one article was a sidebar on the degree to which officials complied with the newspaper’s request for the salary information.

In Hagerstown, Md., The Herald-Mail marked Sunshine Week by requesting information about which public records were requested from the city, the county and the county board of education. The paper reported that the “runaway leader” was 911 and emergency services call reports.

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > Local News

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The Honolulu Advertiser opened its four-day Sunshine Week series with a page-one story about the obstacles people can face when trying to obtain even basic government records. With the jump, the newspaper ran a full-page, comprehensive guide to the kinds of records are available from 29 different government offices, from courts to schools, and how to access them online or in person.

Openness is about more than records, as The Times Union in Albany, N.Y., demonstrated with this Sunshine Week story about the accessibility of Gov. George Pataki’s communications staff compared to previous administrations. “Almost from the outset, there was this venomous, hateful attitude toward the press that I never felt during the [Mario] Cuomo administration,” the paper quoted one insider.

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > Local News

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The Richmond Times-Dispatch focused some of its Sunshine Week coverage on a new system used by the Virginia Department of Transportation to electronically track agencies’ operational performance. The “dashboard” system is supported by public access advocates because it brings the information to one place in an easy-to-understand format; those who oppose it cite the same reason.

In an ongoing series, reporters for The San Diego Union-Tribune asked city officials to turn over their appointment calendars. Though the paper initially met with some resistance, some officials—including the mayor—reconsidered after several articles about their refusals.

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > Local News

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“Growing secrecy threatens public.” You can’t state it much more clearly than that. But The Albany Times Union strengthened that already striking headline with a bold photo illustration—complete with cut-up “secrecy” newspaper—and compelling copy to kick off Sunshine Week.

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > People & FOIA

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During Sunshine Week, The Austin American-Statesman profiled a pastor seeking information about a proposed horse track, a father of three who wanted to assess how school performance related to teacher experience, and the leader of a group of neighborhood associations opposing landfills, who has become “a force to be reckoned with in public hearings” thanks to the information she’s gleaned from public records.

The Dayton Daily News wrote about citizens who used public records to fight landfills, stop the Army from hiring a local company to dispose of a neutralized nerve agent in the county’s sewer system, and block construction of a new airport runway that would have significantly increased the number of flights over a nearby small town. In addition to the groups battling officials, the Daily News found one that used school district construction contracts to develop strategies for minority business owners to successfully bid for more work.

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > People & FOIA

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Eight local “Heroes of open government” were profiled by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. They were people who used government records to effect change in their communities, as well as officials who worked toward greater openness and accessibility. The heroes were honored at a luncheon attended by notables that included the chief justice of the state supreme court, a U.S. Senator and a former governor of Georgia.

When a local couple asked about the closing of a nearby fish hatchery, they found themselves stonewalled and overcharged, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Suspicious, they expanded their queries to salaries, benefits, and officials’ travel, including an African safari, all of which are now under investigation. (left)

The Orlando Sentinel featured a former nurse who has been using public records laws to force administrators at the University of Central Florida to “document and justify their growth plans on paper and in public meetings.”

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > FOI Guides

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Throughout Sunshine Week, The Idaho Statesman in Boise published a series of “Public Records You Can Use” articles that explained how to get information from various local government offices. On the day the paper published a link to the county assessor’s office, Web traffic to the site surged, causing it to temporarily shut down.

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > FOI Guides

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In Binghamton, N.Y., readers of the Press & Sun-Bulletin could roll the dice to see if they got official records—which may be too close to the truth in many cases—with this board game created by Tyswan Stewart using staff research and information from the Gannett News Service.

At The Times in Shreveport, La., artist David Wright created this brightly illustrated info graphic that follows the process of requesting a public record and of enforcing public records law.

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > Audits

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The Journal News in White Plains, N.Y., produced extensive coverage of Freedom of Information issues over four days, including an FOI audit by 52 reporters of some 121 agencies in three counties. Police departments did particularly badly during the review. In several communities officials acknowledged the mishandling of FOI requests and launched staff training to improve compliance.

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features

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Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > Audits

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The Associated Press in Oregon and the Society of Professional Journalists worked with newspapers across the state to coordinate an FOI audit in all 36 counties. Results appeared in the papers during Sunshine Week.The Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore., coordinated a four-county segment of the audit. Its volunteers were intimidated, and information was denied. The paper found increased barriers to access created by some 300 exemptions enacted over the past 30 years.

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > Used in News

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The Orlando Sentinel looked back over the prior year to news reports of great importance to readers that wouldn’t have come to light without public records. “Deadly roads. Poorly trained teachers. Child abuse,” the paper stated. “These are some of the community problems that the Orlando Sentinel told you about during the past year — something the newspaper couldn’t have done without public records.”

“Scarcely a week goes by without someone in The Olympian newsroom submitting a FOIA,” explained Vickie Kilgore, executive editor of the Olympia, Wash., newspaper in a Sunshine Week column. “[O]ur newsroom invests a lot of energy in, and attaches much importance to, safeguarding the public’s right to know.... Today, on Sunshine Sunday, we hope you can share our zeal and will join our efforts to defend these rights.”

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > Used in News

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Kansas City Star Editorial Page Editor Miriam Pepper highlighted several stories that wouldn’t have been reported if it weren’t for open records. “As citizens paying for government services, we all have a right to know that the services offered are safe, efficient and effective,” she wrote. “Without records checks, it’s impossible to tell.”

The Detroit Free Press explained “The value of knowing” by focusing on how reporters developed six major investigations using public records. Without public access to the records, “you wouldn’t know some government secrets,” the Free Press noted, adding that, “Most of the stories prompted public response and policy changes.”

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > Other Sections

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Showing how Sunshine Week coverage can go beyond the main news and editorial pages, The Journal News in White Plains, N.Y., featured relevant stories in its Learning column and in the Sports section.

The Learning column used the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s “Future of the First Amendment” report on high school students’ First Amendment views to kick off local school discussions. A sidebar explained that Journal News reporters would be visiting area high schools during Sunshine Week.

Sports reporters utilized New York’s Freedom of Information Law to track the salaries of area public school athletic directors. In addition to reporting the salary results, the Journal News also reported on how well the schools complied with the information requests.

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > Special Sections

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The Outer Banks Sentinel in Nags Head, N.C., commingled materials from the Sunshine Week Toolkit with its own reporting to create an eight-page stand-alone special section marking Sunshine Week. Content included commentary from lawmakers in support of open government, a look at access in North Carolina, informational graphics, and a column on the importance of openness to student journalists.

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > Legislative Issues

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As part of its comprehensive coverage of local Freedom of Information issues, The Journal News in White Plains stepped back and took a look at how New York state’s FOI law compares with others. The conclusion, not so good: “The Empire State has one of the weakest freedom of information laws in the nation,” the paper reported.

The Hutchinson News used Sunshine Week to write about Kansas legislation that would require for-profit companies to publicly document how they spend public funds. The bill, supported by the Kansas Press Association, was preceded by the disclosure that a local attorney had built a large profit margin into his contract to run the county jail annex—and that he split the take with the sheriff. The attorney and the sheriff ultimately spent a year in jail.

Sunshine Week BRIGHT IDEAS > News & Features > Other

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Reporters at the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., combed through more than 1,600 Freedom of Information Law requests filed in 2004 to identify the most frequent requestors and the type of information sought. Police records topped the list, followed by environmental health information. The most frequent requestor was a housing authority employee who regularly seeks police records on applicants to the authority’s rental apartments.

Government agency staffers generally did well in The Austin American-Statesman’s Sunshine Week “pop quiz,” an informal FOI audit—or “mini-test,” as the paper called it—of local cities and school districts.