Your right to know

Your right to know

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Marriage licenses. Divorce decrees. Death certificates.

The average adult American likely will have reason to request a copy of at least one of these in the course of a lifetime.

But public records are much more than those documents that map the intersection of one’s personal life with public institutions. They are the atlases for understanding what government at all levels is doing in your name and with your tax money.

Sad to say, the number of public officials who consider open records requests intrusive and bothersome is legion. Some have the mistaken idea that the information is theirs and not the people’s. Sometimes government officials might know that releasing certain information could bring embarrassment. They throw up hurdles in the form of high fees for collecting the information, or nitpick the wording in a request to say a document doesn’t exist.

Why, oh why

Why, a hospital administrator might ask, would someone want to know the names, job titles and salaries of every public hospital employee? Why, a school administrator might ask, would someone want the same information about district employees? Why, a city manager or county administrator might ask, would someone want the same information about their employees?

Why? Because the public, which finances these institutions, has a right to know who is on their payroll and how much they are being compensated for the work they do. It’s called accountability.

Truth be told, the “why” doesn’t matter.

Public information is public information. A requestor does not have to provide a reason for wanting the information.

State and federal open records laws weren’t enacted for use solely by journalists, although media types file their fair share of requests for information. The laws protect every citizen’s right to examine public information.

As we have said before, and likely will say every year when Sunshine Week comes around, information is power, and in a democracy, information should never rest solely in the hands of the government.

The governed must have access.