Energize Sunshine Week

We know the Grinch stole Christmas.  Now we have to figure out who took the "umph" out of Sunshine Week.

Used to be, newspapers would honor the occasion with extensive coverage. There would be salutes to stalwart individuals, many journalists among them, who had, against all odds, patched together information pulled from uncooperative government sources to expose waste, fraud, theft, cronyism, indecision and bad ideas.

For instance, a review of the story last year about the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund extracting Department of Home Land Security documents concerning the department's monitoring of the Occupy Movement would have been commendable.

Closer to home, a summary of Progress Michigan's investigation utilizing FOIA requests for information about Michigan Rep. Roy Schmidt's machinations in changing his party affiliation would have been instructive.

Just a week ago it was reported that the Michigan Chapter of Americans for Prosperity was told it would have to pay the Michigan State Police about $19,600 for copies of a few hours of video tape recorded last December.  That, too, would have been a worthy subject for discussion during Sunshine Week.

Also during past Sunshine Weeks, there would have been a recounting of the year's efforts to strengthen Freedom of Information statutes to make it easier for the public to acquire the records their tax dollars had paid for; and especially, to expose corruption and ineptness in government.

What happened this year?  I suppose editors could have pointed out that last September Rep. Mike Shirkey introduced in the Michigan House a watery bill, intended as an improvement on Michigan's outdated statute, to speed up FOIA compliance, reduce costs and increase fines against government offices that failed to comply.

Unfortunately, the bill expired in December.  But wait!  Shirkey reintroduced the bill in January.  It continues to languish.  Wow.  There's a scoop. 

"Sunshine" Week and the prospect for FOIA reform

Here we are again in "Sunshine" Week, more than a year after a bill was filed in the Michigan House to add the Michigan Legislature to the list of state government functions subject to the state's ancient Freedom of Information Act.  That bill expired in December at the end of the previous legislative term.

Another bill, designed to encourage more prompt government responses to FOIA requests and establish lower, uniform retrieval and copying costs, was filed last September.  It, too, died at the end of the last legislative term, but was resurrected by Rep. Mike Shirkey at the beginning of the new term in January.  Shirkey's bill has had the active support of the Michigan Press Association.

The flaw in both of these proposals to amend Michigan FOIA is that they are based on the old FOIA model, which requires a request to a government unit's "FOIA Coordinator" in order to obtain public information, subjecting the request to the scrutiny,  approval and convenience of personnel in that particular unit.

Genuine reform, now being implemented to various degrees in most federal agencies, requires that non-exempt public information be posted on searchable websites (often referred to as "reading rooms") by the various government offices as soon as the information is created or acquired.  In this process, government staff do not play gatekeeper; nor are they distracted from other duties in order to conduct a search.


This proactive approach for public access to government records should be adopted by the states.