Editorial: Be vigilant against any attempt to block Sunshine

Editor’s note: The original version of this editorial misrepresented the profession of Michael Barfield. He is a paralegal who serves as the director of public records for the Florida Center for Governmental Accountability.

Floridians have become accustomed to government officials who talk a good game on the Sunshine Law — but then throw up barriers to access public records, and connive to confer in private on issues that should only be discussed in open meetings.

So it was easy to be skeptical when the Sentinel discovered a note on the website of Osceola County Property Appraiser Katrina Scarborough: “If you are looking for information other than property data, please submit a public records request by clicking here. There is a $25 charge to process your request,” it read. It contained a hyperlink to a web page where requesters could enter credit card information.

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Those false barriers have become tougher to navigate, especially in state agencies under Gov. Ron DeSantis, says Michael Barfield, director of public records for the Florida Center for Governmental Accountability. Records requests are often stonewalled by state agencies — or merely ignored, Barfield says. “It’s getting to be like pulling teeth. … the strategy is to delay, obfuscate and charge excessive fees,” he says. While there’s nothing to suggest that anyone paid the $25 fee on the Osceola site, there’s no way to know whether anyone saw that notice and decided not to ask for records, he says.

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