Government transparency, a.k.a. sunshine, is in grave danger in San Francisco. The city has the nation’s oldest and arguably strongest set of open-meeting and public-record laws, the Sunshine Ordinance (Administrative Code Chapter 67). Passed with a 16-point margin by the voters in November 1999, the ordinance establishes an 11-member panel, the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, whose job is to encourage and monitor city officials’ and agencies’ compliance with local and state sunshine laws. (I served on the task force from 2002 to 2014.) Of the five entities empowered to go after sunshine scofflaws — the others are the Ethics Commission, the Board of Supervisors, the district attorney and the state attorney general — only the task force has consistently been willing to do so. But its authority is extremely limited; it cannot fine or otherwise penalize officials or agencies who willfully violate the ordinance.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, among others, want to defang the task force even further and the board’s Rules Committee has got the ball rolling by delaying task force appointments, thereby preventing mustering of a quorum and forcing the task force into dormancy. Mandelman is on the committee, along with Chair Shamann Walton and Supervisor Stephen Sherrill.
The Guild has joined a pushback effort that could wind up in court. And already, we’ve spoken out publicly. Leaders of the Guild and the Society of Professional Journalists’ Northern California Chapter authorized me to voice our strong displeasure over the appointments delay. That I did at the board’s regular meeting on July 28. My remarks appear immediately below.
In solidarity and sunshine,
Richard Knee
Chair, Guild Legislative and Political Committee, and member, SPJ NorCal Freedom of Information Committee
Good afternoon, supervisors.
I am Richard Knee, a journalist and former member of the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force.
I am speaking on behalf of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Northern California Chapter and the Pacific Media Workers Guild, NewsGuild-CWA Local 39521.
At least one of you has expressed a desire to fill the task force with members who take a so-called pragmatic approach toward sunshine-law compliance.
Delaying appointments of those who have already applied and in some cases been vetted by SPJ and the League of Women Voters is anything but pragmatic.
You are forcing the task force to go on hiatus, causing build-up of a backlog of sunshine-related complaints and delaying redress for those who have filed them.
It is not the task force’s job to be more friendly or more adversarial toward city officials and agencies.
The task force’s job is to encourage and monitor sunshine-law compliance, without fear or favor.
At least one of you argues that the volume of record requests makes it difficult for city officials and agencies to do their job.
Sunshine-law compliance is part and parcel of that job.
But rather than make sure that those officials and agencies have sufficient staff and resources to meet public-record requests, some of you want instead to blame the requesters for exercising their right to know about city policies and actions, and their bases – a tactic straight out of the authoritarian playbook!
It is a wrong-headed approach that will enable backroom dealing and force sunshine complainants to go to court – which will cost the city potentially millions every year. That is anything but pragmatic!
