Government transparency and democracy might just prevail

Sunshine Week has arrived and serves as an annual reminder that if governmental transparency is not achieved, our democracy will also never be fully realized.

 

Rejoice, though, the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exists and sets minimum duties of transparency on entities that use public funds in our state.

 

Use it or we may well lose it.

 

For example, FOIA provides deadlines upon how fast public bodies must respond to open records requests, how fast they must provide those records, and even what records and information must be provided without making a written request. The law also requires the public bodies to give the public notice of their date, time and location of public meetings, as well as the agenda for items to be addressed at the meeting.

 

A school board during a public meeting wants to add a vote to provide a contract for all vending machine sales to benefit a board member’s brother’s company. FOIA provides the minimum duties for how this self-dealing vote can happen. See S.C. Code 30-4-80(A).

 

The school board approves the sweetheart contract anyway but refuses to show the press or members of the public the proposed terms that all board members reviewed. FOIA says you only must ask at the end of the meeting and that contract is all yours. See S.C. Code 30-4-30(D)(4).

 

The school board scenarios above are only two of many addressed by the state Freedom of Information Act. Too often though, the law is ignored by public bodies around the state. Whether due to ignorance, incompetence or a desire to maintain a status quo of operational secrecy, too often sunshine is not achieved in this state.

 

If holding public officials to account for their actions while in office is a core function of democracy, the public (and particularly the press) must be transparent about their problems with getting governmental transparency. The people must know (hopefully, from the press) when the government is breaking the law, avoiding public scrutiny.

 

Go to the South Carolina Press Association website (scpress.org) and under the “FOIA” tab, go to the Public Official’s Guide to Compliance with the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act. Put this PDF on your smartphone and use it to look up the above code sections, read the law and (eventually) cite it when a public official tries to break the law. Finally, report your local problems with transparency and help the South Carolina Press Association staff when they are traveling to the South Carolina Statehouse to battle efforts by the legislature to limit openness.

 

If you can do that, we won’t lose FOIA and democracy just might prevail.    

 

Taylor M. Smith IV is a media lawyer who represents the S.C. Press Association and its newspapers. Smith is a partner at Harrison, Radeker & Smith, P.A. in Columbia. The press association is an advocate for open government in South Carolina.