Open meetings and public records.

• Author: Branham, Jeb T.
• Position: Letters - Letter to the editor

The article "New Limitations on Access to Public Records and Meetings in Government Contracting" (September/October) suggests that recent amendments to Florida's open meetings and public records laws now require government agencies to conduct meetings with competitively bidding vendors in the shade and keep certain records related to the bidding process private. I do not read the new law this way.

The article states: "F.S. [section] 286.0113 now precludes public attendance at 'any ... meeting at which a negotiation with a vendor is conducted at which a vendor makes an oral presentation ..., or at which a vendor answers questions as part of a competitive solicitation.'" The article later states "agencies are now responsible for keeping certain records and meetings exempt that have historically been open.... Agencies which ... mistakenly post or make available the newly exempt records or meetings, may invite protests of intended agency awards due to lack of compliance."

Florida's open meetings or "Sunshine" law, in summary, requires all meetings of government agency boards at which official acts are taken to be open to the public. See F.S. [section] 286.011(1). The law then provides a few exemptions that give an agency the option to conduct some kinds of meetings away from the public or in the "shade." The law says agencies "may" hold certain meetings in the shade and identifies other meetings as "exempt" from the Sunshine requirements of F.S. [section] 280.011(1). (F.S. [section] [section] 286.011(8) and 286.0113(1)). A number of other statutes also provide exemptions to the Sunshine law's open meetings requirement. Some of these...