Is it really the Sunshine State?
TALLAHASSEE -
As Florida legislators complimented each other for what they
considered unprecedented bipartisan openness as they hash out insurance reform,
a panel of House members met quietly Thursday to discuss education policy in a
meeting announced only to them and in apparent violation of the House's
rules.
The meeting of the House Schools and Learning Council was held during the
weeklong special session called exclusively to discuss lowering insurance costs.
The 14-member panel spent an hour deciding which committees would take up which
pieces of the House's 100 Ideas agenda and what issues to add to the list.
No one attended the meeting, with the exception of legislators and staff, and
a Miami Herald reporter who learned of it by chance.
The committee's staff defended the decision not to announce the meeting,
saying the meeting didn't fall under the House's open meeting rule -- which
requires meetings be noticed while the state's Sunshine Law requires it be open.
Read more in Bradenton Herald