Spreading sunshine

Newspapers and journalists have many jobs. Gathering the news, covering public meetings, publicizing community events, helping to find lost dogs and defending  the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment are just some of them.
This week (March 13 – 19) is Sunshine Week in America, celebrating the laws and efforts to support open government, freedom of information and the public’s right to know. Another part of our job here is to educate and encourage citizen participation in their government and other public forums. Open meeting and public records laws — as with the First Amendment — are not just for newspapers and journalists.  These laws are the basis for everyone’s participation in our democratic society.
This is called Sunshine Week after a famous quote by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941). He said: “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” This week also contains the birth date (March 16) of James Madison, considered the chief author of our nation’s Bill of Rights.
In California. lots of “sunshine” and disinfectant is provided by the (Ralph M.) Brown Act, the set of laws that requires all government bodies, committees, commissions and agencies to conduct all their business in open and public session. The Brown Act allows for a few exceptions covering certain legal cases, property negotiations and personnel reviews to  be conducted in closed session.
Under the Brown Act, a local government body must publicize or post its meeting agenda 72 hours prior to a regular meeting. The announcement must include the time and place for the meeting and it must offer accommodations for citizens with physical or hearing impairments.
A public record must be kept of all these meetings. Many local agencies now video or audio record their meetings, to accompany an official written record. All these files and tapes  must be provided to any citizen upon request.
There are also Public Records Act laws and federal and state Freedom of Information Act procedures. These laws are used most often by journalists, lawyers and special interest groups. But they were written for everyone and now can be easily found with an internet search.
Without more civic literacy and public attendance at government meetings, there can not be enough special laws written to protect our First Amendment and “right to know.” Democracy is not a spectator sport.
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives,” Madison once wrote.
Not even the most talented or most dedicated journalist can do the job of a thousand citizens. Especially in recent times, the resources that support credible news sources and professional journalists have been diminishing.
Meanwhile, at all levels of government — from fire and school districts, to city and county government — there remain elected and appointed officials bent on locking the public out of the meeting room and open decision making process. Sometimes they meet in secret with private emails. Other times, they don’t have to cheat because no one from the public shows up at their meeting in the first place.
Spreading sunshine on our governing process isn’t just about the high principles of democracy or the First Amendment. Lots of money is at stake here, too. Taxpayers money — your money. Secret deals, corruption, waste, fraud and conflicts of interest can’t take place in a Brown Act meeting, so long as a journalist or the public is watching.
Being the public’s watch dog is not always as rewarding as it should be. Lately, too many journalists and newspapers have been accused of asking too many tough questions. Maybe that’s because not enough citizens are asking enough questions for themselves.
Justice Brandeis also said, “the most important political office is that of the private citizen.”
— Rollie Atkinson