Tavares, FL             March 14, 2016

Today's Daily Commercial published an AP story on open record law status in "every state".

 

Then the editor chopped it off after only describing status in Alabama, Alaska and Arizona. They left out all the other states including Florida. So here is the intro, the Florida section and a link to the entire article:

 

How open record laws are applied in state legislatures

By The Associated Press

Mar. 13, 2016 4:10 PM EDT

 

Lawmakers in every state have adopted laws requiring most government meetings and records to be open to the public. But in some states, lawmakers have exempted themselves from complying.

 

The Associated Press sent open-records request to the top lawmakers in all 50 states and most governors, seeking copies of their daily schedules and emails from the government accounts for the week of Feb. 1-7. The AP received more denials than approvals from lawmakers. It did not generally request emails from private accounts because rules and practices on those vary widely from state to state.

 

FLORIDA

 

Florida's open-records law applies to lawmakers and the governor, and all responded by to the AP's request by providing copies of their government emails and daily calendars. But some initially said there could be costs. The House Republican and Democratic leaders, for example, were swamped with hundreds of emails for the week of Feb. 1-7, as the chamber was considering bills allowing guns on college campuses and the open carrying of firearms. They said the records request would require extensive staff time and fees, so the AP narrowed the scope to review only certain emails. Some lawmakers have dealt with the open-records law by not using email for public business. Only the response from Democratic Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner included substantial emails both to and from the legislator. Republican Gov. Rick Scott's response consisted of a reference to a website where he publishes his schedules and emails.

 

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/b263e6c347db41628c010e040c62adfa/how-open-record-laws-are-applied-state-legislatures

 

PS:  Search tips:  The Daily Commercial AND the Orlando Sentinel rely a lot on AP stories, and may edit or shorten articles.   Usually they are published at least on one other site, and the AP.org site would have the COMPLETE unedited article, so you can search on a few terms in the first sentence plus "AP" and usually find a more complete version of the article.

VJ