June 02, 2003
Open record comparisons
By Jim Lee, The Access Project
Balancing people's right to know with privacy concerns - whether individual or because of terrorism - is a delicate task that could be made easier with a database of information that lawmakers could consult before enacting any restrictive legislation.
Until recently, such a database didn't exist. States considering legislation that would limit or shut off citizen access to information ran the risk of making decisions without fully realizing the potential impact of what they were doing. Now, thanks to the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project, all that is changing.
Marion Brechner, an Orlando-based media executive, gave $600,000 to help create the Citizen Access Project in March, 1999. The project is an offshoot of the Joseph L. Brechner Center for Freedom of Information. The center is named after Joseph Brechner, Marion Brechner's late husband, who gave $1 million to the center in 1986.
Bill Chamberlin, Joseph L. Brechner Eminent Scholar of Mass Communication and founding director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications, said a lot of preliminary research and groundwork had to be done before the project was ready for launch.
"Because of the site as functioning is only about a year old, we don't have a lot of exposure to government policy makers yet," he said. "One thing I think they will find if they visit the site is that states have very general imprecise laws that limit access to information. Our site will show how to write strong specific laws that limit that restriction and enhance public access."
Virtually every state has seen legislation introduced in the past two years to limit access to information. Most of it is based on security following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. But every year legislators also consider laws to limit or close off access based on privacy concerns. The Citizen Access Project can help legislators see what other states have been doing with similar problems, and can help ensure that the legislation accomplishes what it intends without unnecessarily shutting off the public's right to know.
The site rates states in various categories, assigning them different levels of openness - from 7, completely open, to 1, completely closed.
Visitors can get information about their state, or they can compare how their state rates against others.
"For the average citizen thy may be more interested in seeing how their state compares to others and see in a user friendly fashion if they can get access to computer records for example," Chamberlin said.
"Even though we only have a selective list of categories up, you can begin to see trends," he said. Virginia, North Carolina and Florida are consistently ranking near the top in allowing their public to know what's going on in government. Pennsylvania, long thought to be one of the worst states, is indeed showing up to be that, with Nevada, North Dakota and South Dakota ranking low as well. But this is just on a set number of categories and the final results may be different."
Maryland, he said, is one state that could use some improvement.
"You can quickly look down the list and see most of the things we've rated so far are twos and threes," he said. "The experts are rating you as more toward closing then toward open."
By using open states as an example, legislators can be more informed in crafting legislation. The information can also help the public or groups fighting legislation because they can offer more exact alternatives that still accomplish the same ultimate goals without enacting sweeping legislation closing off access to whole categories of records.
Chamberlin said students working on the project have at least three semesters of training and almost all are law students or doctoral students.
"We have a couple that are masters only but very, very few," he said.
Getting the site up and running has been a big task, but one that Chamberlin said he considers worthwhile.
"It's an enormous job," he said. "Some people have told me its impossible. But the more information we have, the better. The more we can help people understand these laws the better off we'll all be."
The Access Project is a year-long series highlighting different aspects of the state's Open Records Act and Open Meetings Act, and whether officials in Carroll County comply with the laws. Previous articles in the series can be viewed in the Open Government page of our Web site at: www.CarrollCounty.com
For more information:
Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project: www.citizenaccess.org
Brechner Center for Freedom of Information: http://brechner.org