A winning example would be in Florida, ... They banned netting, which has brought back the spanish mackerel. That also brought back king mackerels, because king mackerels feed on spanish mackerels. |
I'm looking to make a little difference. |
If transparency in government is not ethics, then I don't know what is. |
On a good day, you don't need that many fish, ... You have to take a scientific and common sense approach. |
That seems to be an improvement over the original rules. |
The public has a right to know whether the government is doing what it's supposed to in cases like this, ... If the government has the power to squelch all that information under the guise of attorney-client privilege, that doesn't instill confidence. It says, 'Don't file the compliant, it can be covered up.' |
There have been some loop holes that have been put in [the original law]. I guess the biggest problem is there are some terms in the law that are misunderstood or misinterpreted by public officials. One of the main ones is, the law attempts to define what a meeting is. We always thought the law was clear, that the parts of the meeting that were supposed to be open would be discussions, whatever matters were pending, debate and the votes. |
They will have two- or three-hour meetings before the public arrives. They will hash out everything and the only thing the public gets to see is the vote, without the benefit of why Council Member A voted the way he did, or Council Member B voted the way she did. So we?re trying to clarify the definition of what a meeting is. |