The purpose of Florida's Government-In-The-Sunshine Law is to try to ensure that the public's business is done in public rather than in the proverbial back rooms. The law requires meetings of elected and appointed governmental boards to be advertised in advance, open to the public and minutes of the proceedings kept.
The law applies to any gathering of two or more members of the same board to discuss some matter which could come before that board for action. Officials convicted of Sunshine law violations could be fined, removed from office or jailed for up to 60 days.
But for anything to happen, the State Attorney must decide to investigate and, if appropriate, turn the matter over to a Grand Jury.
Kirk Zuelch, our State Attorney, has a checkered history when it comes to the prosecution of Sunshine Law violations. Does "checkered" sound better than "selective enforcement?"
Several years ago, City Commissioners Sally Lewis and Harry Powell met for lunch at Dennis Pharmacy to discuss landscaping at Smathers Beach. Zuelch prosecuted them for violating the Sunshine Law.
You may also remember what happened when two new Mosquito Control Board Commissioners traveled to a convention upstate and were accused of discussing Board business. Zuelch asked a Grand jury to indict them. When that failed, he brought in a Special Prosecutor to investigate.
Not long ago, City Attorney Bob Tischenkel reportedly told City Commissioners that they couldn't travel to Miami together to look at YMCA facilities— because such a "meeting" would violate the Sunshine Law.
Back in 1993, when the Trust for Public Land Advisory Council was meeting secretly to determine how the City would purchase and mange the Key West Bight, Commissioner Joe Pais was reportedly told by then-Commissioner Jimmy Weekley that he couldn't attend any of those meetings because two commissioners in attendance would constitute a violation of the Sunshine Law. Subsequently, of course, the State Attorney General ruled that those meetings did violate the law— but Weekley and the others were not prosecuted because they didn't "knowingly" violate the Sunshine Law.
If Weekley and Turner were anywhere close to being as influential in Washington as the Mayor's press release said they were, they should be congratulated. But the law's the law. When two or more commissioners are in the same meeting to discuss the people's business— and that meeting has not been advertised in advance and is not open to the public— that seems to be a clear violation to the Sunshine Law. And what else did they discuss while they were up there.
If Weekley is again found to be a violator, this will be his second "conviction."
But don't hold your breath waiting for Kirk Zuelch to fall all over himself trying to fry these people— like he tried to do with the Mosquito Control Commissioners. It's called selective enforcement. And he's very good at that.
As we were going to press Thursday, we received the following statement from City Attorney Tischenkel. His opinion is that the Weekley-Turner trip did not violate the Sunshine Law. But keep in mind that it was former City Attorney Ginny Stones who told Weekley and the TPL Council that they were okay out of the sunshine.
Here's Tischenkel's statement:
"As always, I had the opportunity to remind Mayor Weekley and Commissioner Turner of their general responsibilities under the Sunshine Law prior to their trip. After their arrival, they understood that their mission was one solely to lobby federal officials for an "economic conveyance" of the Outer Mole.
"The law prohibits two commissioners from discussing out of the sunshine any matter that is reasonably foreseeable to come before the City Commission for action. I understand that all decisions about whether the City (acting as the LRA) desires to purchase the Outer Mole have already been made; and furthermore, that all decisions about whether the City desires to receive the property for free (the economic conveyance) have been made.
"Therefore, this lobbying effort did not result in two commissioners discussing any matter that may come before them for action.
"There remains one large issue before the City regarding the Outer Mole: use of the property. The federal officials with whom the Mayor and Commissioner met have no direct involvement in determining local government use."