Nickens Visit

Tim Nickens, editorial page editor for the St. Petersburg Times visited our class to inform us about public records and what we may not know about them in general and how to obtain these records. He explained that Florida has some of the most open public records and what is meant by that is that any person in our society has the right to obtain public records from the state of Florida. For example, if a person wanted to see the minutes from their county’s school board, they can ask for those minutes and see what was discussed in their meetings. Nickens explained that the only records that are denied to the public are juvenile criminal records and public employee files with their social security numbers.
The one aspect of public records that I found very interesting was the fact that as Floridians, we are allowed to gain access to public records for someone’s own personal interest. I personally don’t feel it’s necessary to look through public records for my own personal whim but I can understand why people do take advantage of the opportunity. For some, it is refreshing to know what is going on in our own community.
Nickens also got my attention about the fact that these public records have value. What he meant was that if these records weren’t public, we as a society wouldn’t have an idea what the elected officials were doing. The one thing I found even more interesting was the fact that even though Florida has open public records, obtaining these records are actually very difficult and involves some sort of monetary value as well as a long paper process.
After hearing all of this, I came to the conclusion that while most public records in the state of Florida are open to the public, I am not sure if they are worth trying to obtain because how difficult it is to get them.