Sunshine Week shines light on government

Democracy demands open government. The people need to know what’s going on across local, state and federal governments in order to make informed decisions. That’s why we celebrate Sunshine Week, which occurs every year on the week of the March 16 birthday of James Madison, the Father of the Constitution. He especially championed the First Amendment guarantee of “the freedom of speech, or of the press.”

Sunshine Week is coordinated by the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. It promotes open access to government officials and documents and the protection of the First Amendment rights of not just journalists, but all Americans, especially in this age of social media.

Some good things have happened lately. Fortuitously this week the Trump administration ordered the release of all the remaining files on the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. “Historians quickly said they would need time to assess the flood of files,” reported USA Today. This is a treasure trove of documents that, according to the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, was supposed to have been released in 2017.

In California, transparent government is under attack in the state Legislature. Ashley Zavala, Capitol correspondent for KCRA 3 Sacramento, reported on March 17 that state Senate leadership has maintained COVID-era restricted press access during session, “ignoring a century of precedent. TV news cameras have an even harder time.” The Assembly, by contrast, ended its pandemic restrictions. What’s going on with the state Senate on something so basic?

On March 18, Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, held a press conference outside the Senate hallway to protest the restriction on press access. He promoted his Open Government Accountability Act, Assembly Bill 541, which he said on X would “strengthen enforcement to hold state & local politicians accountable for complying with open gov rules.” And he introduced a companion bill, Assembly Bill 26, which would force the Legislature to comply with the California Public Records Act.

As CalMatters recently reported, “California’s legislative leaders don’t think the public should know whether federal agents are investigating state lawmakers for public corruption, nor do they believe taxpayers should know how much of their money the Legislature is spending on criminal defense lawyers.” And we’re supposed to trust these people with major decisions?

A good state resource is Transparent California, the largest database on public pay and pensions.

The highest beneficiary for 2023, the latest year available, was Charles “Chip” Kelly, who received $7.1 million in pay and benefits as head coach of UCLA’s football team, record eight wins, five losses. He’s now offensive coordinator with the Las Vegas Raiders. Among non-coaches, topping the list was UCLA plastic surgeon Jason Roostaeian, who nipped and tucked $3.4 million.

For the city of Los Angeles, the highest was fire captain Jason Getchius at $906,161. For Santa Ana, it was police captain Enrique Esparza at $375, 392. For the city of Riverside, it was police chief Lawrence Gonzalez at $624,359. And in the city of San Bernardino, it was assistant police chief David Green, who collected $725,361 in pay and benefits.

Now you know.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. American democracy needs even more transparency.