SUNSHINE LAW: MORE ACCESS FOR PUBLIC

Missouri's Sunshine Law -- officially known as the Missouri Open Meetings and Open Records Act -- was first adopted 25 years ago. The intent of the law has been to give the public access to meetings and documents relating to government.

The Missouri Legislature has fine-tuned the Sunshine Law from time to time, mostly thanks to the leadership of the Missouri Press Association. In far too many cases, however, the impetus to change the law has come only after protracted and costly legal battles waged in an effort to get information that should have been provided all along.

In the final week of this year's legislative session, the Legislature approved some major changes in the Sunshine Law, virtually all of them designed to keep government open and accessible. The changes received bipartisan support in both legislative chambers. In fact, the Senate gave its unanimous approval to the changes.

Regrettably, seven House members, including Mary Kasten of Cape Girardeau and David Schwab of Jackson, voted against the changes. Special-interest groups, mostly associations representing government officials and using taxpayer money in their lobbying efforts, managed to persuade only seven House members out of the entire General Assembly that openness in government is bad.

Among the key changes in the Sunshine Law is one that will be of special interest to taxpayers in Southeast Missouri. It says that settlements relating to legal actions of public governmental bodies or their agents must be made public. Even though the law allows settlement agreements to be closed in some rare instances, the amount of money paid must always be public under the changed law. This would require institutions like Southeast Missouri State University, which has had several hefty settlements with former faculty members, to disclose how much of taxpayer funds is being spent on these lawsuits.

Other positive changes in the Sunshine Law require voted taken in properly closed meetings to be recorded and later disclosed. Another change makes it clear that governmental advisory committees are covered by the Sunshine Law. And another change requires government meetings to be held in places large enough to accommodate the anticipated audience.

Access to government records has been limited, in effect, in recent years by outrageous charges for copying and other costs associated with providing the documents. This was the case recently when the Southeast Missourian asked for information about bingo operators in Cape Girardeau County. The Sunshine Law has been changed to require public agencies to charge reasonable fees for locating and copying documents for the public. The change also covers public information that is stored in computers.

The Legislature is to be commended for generally upgrading the Sunshine Law. Particular thanks also goes to the senators and representatives who understand that open government is best and that any government with something to hide is not the kind of government a free democracy needs or wants.