Your right to know? -- baltimoresun.com
Your right to know? A national poll finds that a growing majority of Americans view the federal government as secretive -- and they want to know where candidates stand on the issue By John Fritze Sun reporter March 16, 2008 Joan Floyd, a veteran at battling City Hall, isn't easily pushed around. Part neighborhood advocate, part gadfly, Floyd has had to become part lawyer, too - specializing in the intricacies of the state's open records and meetings laws. Negotiating Baltimore's arcane record-keeping is one thing, but for Floyd - who has pushed to open zoning meetings and pressed for documents related to her neighborhood - there's a larger issue. She says the city and state sometimes appear to be going in the wrong direction on public access, closing things down rather than opening them up. "I don't see the kind of openness I would expect to see in a modern-day city," said Floyd, who recently testified against legislation proposed by the city to allow Baltimore to withhold documents that are part of a civil lawsuit. "City Hall is not as easy to get into as it should be." A growing number of Americans are voicing alarm at the lack of information provided at all levels of government - especially the federal government - according to a survey released today by the American Society of Newspaper Editors as part of its Sunshine Week campaign for open records and meetings. Seventy-four percent of poll respondents described the federal government as somewhat or very secretive - up from 62 percent two years ago. Nearly nine in 10 people said a presidential candidate's position on transparent government is important in helping them to decide how to vote. The number of people who described the federal government as "very secretive" increased from 22 percent in 2006 to 44 percent this year. "There has been a drumbeat of conversation over what Uncle Sam is doing, and that is starting to impact how millions of Americans feel about how the federal government operates," said Thomas Hargrove, a reporter with Scripps Howard News Service, which conducted the survey along with Ohio University. The poll results play into the debate over balancing transparency and security, which has been taking place at the federal level since the Sept. 11 attacks. The Bush administration's policies on wiretapping, torture and Guantanamo Bay detainees have added new dimensions to old questions about openness. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said it is likely the federal government has either opened mail or monitored phone conversations of people in the United States without permission from a federal judge. Only 26 percent thought it was likely that their own mail had been opened. The survey, which included 1,012 respondents polled by telephone last month, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Only 21 respondents were from Maryland, too small a sample to draw conclusions about what state residents think of government transparency. "People care about this," said Debra Gersh Hernandez, a staff coordinator of Sunshine Week. "Especially at the federal level, the respondents are very strongly in favor of openness." The federal Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, was enacted in 1966 and has become a leading method for the public to formally request government information. But advocates and some journalists have argued that the administration has stalled or ignored sensitive requests. A new FOIA law signed by President Bush last year was intended to speed dissemination of information, but it is not clear whether federal departments will have the funding to make the changes a reality. "The public needs to know what its government is doing in order to be active and engaged citizens," said Patrice McDermott, director of Open The Government.org and the author of a new book, "Who Needs to Know?" on the state of public access. "Our system of government depends on an informed citizenry," she said. Scott M. Stanzel, deputy White House press secretary, said in a statement that President Bush agrees that transparency is a hallmark of democracy but that the administration must balance that belief against its responsibility to protect the nation from attack. "As we continue to fight in the global war on terrorism, we must be able to legally conduct operations without providing our enemies with a public playbook of our counterterrorism efforts." Concern over government secrecy is not limited to Washington. Forty-four percent of survey respondents said their state government operates secretly, and 40 percent felt that way about local government. Ninety-two percent of respondents said transparency would be a key factor in voting for a state official, such as governor. Asked about specific scenarios, 82 percent said the public should be allowed to see whom lawmakers meet with on a daily basis, 71 percent said police reports on individual crimes should be public and 66 percent said citizens should be able to see who has received a permit to carry a concealed handgun. Without disclosing the premise of this article, The Sun on Wednesday asked the staffs of Gov. Martin O'Malley, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch for their office schedules for March 10. O'Malley and Miller's staff immediately offered the schedules, including a list of whom each official met with privately throughout the day. Busch's spokeswoman repeatedly asked why The Sun was requesting the information. She promised to look into it but then never provided the schedule. She did not return a subsequent phone call. The paper then sent a list of five names to the Maryland State Police media relations office Wednesday afternoon asking for confirmation on whether the individuals had concealed handgun permits. On Friday, a spokesman said the agency had checked the names and that none had the permits. Also on Wednesday, The Sun asked city Police Department spokesman Sterling Clifford for a police report from a carjacking in Northeast Baltimore on March 10. The department, which routinely provides the reports - it charges $10 per report to the public - produced the information Friday morning. Whether officials are willing to provide documents to a reporter may not indicate how freely that information flows to the general public. The city government's history of compliance with open records and meetings laws, for instance, has been spotty. Records requests to the city, filed under the state's version of the FOIA, generally result in the release of information but rarely within the 30-day window provided by law. In several caes, the city has also has been forced by state courts to open up its meetings. "On the whole, we do our best effort to make sure that people have access to city government," said Clifford, noting that the city has limited resources to review record requests. "Openness in government is important. ... At the end of the day it's taxpayer money that's being spent on government." In a finding that is likely to make some open-government advocates wince, 36 percent of poll respondents said the public should be required to show identification and give a written explanation of why they are seeking government records. Another 15 percent said that anyone seeking information should be required to state their name and provide an oral explanation. That's stricter than existing federal and Maryland laws, which generally do not require names or explanations for a records request. The General Assembly is considering a number of bills that would affect public access to information. One, pushed by Baltimore officials, would let cities block access to documents that are part of a civil lawsuit. City lawyers have said they are inundated with requests from law firms seeking documents in advance of court hearings. The bill, opposed by the Maryland- Delaware-D.C. Press Association, appears unlikely to succeed this year. Another bill, sponsored by Del. Elizabeth Bobo, a Howard County Democrat, would require meetings that are held in executive session - in other words, in secret - to reopen to the public before certain votes are taken. Bobo said the legislation was inspired by a closed-door vote by the Maryland Stadium Authority on a major contract. "Open meetings and access to records are a fundamental bedrock to a democracy," said Bobo, adding that she believes the state is generally transparent. "If the citizens can't see or read or know what the government is doing, then that goes contrary to the idea of democracy." Inserted from <http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/ideas/bal-id.poll16mar16,0,117672,print.story>
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