FLORIDA BASKING IN SUNSHINE LAW; Officials Accepting Ban on Secrecy in Public Affairs
Date: 06 June 1971
Special to The New York Times
Most state and local pub officials seen accepting '67 Sunshine Law, which requires that all meetings of state, county and munic comms, bds and agencies must be open to pub at all times; under law, officials who conduct pub business in private are guilty of misdemeanor and can be fined or imprisoned; efforts by Legis to weaken law have been defeated; Fla Sup Ct and Atty Gen Shevin have upheld law and have broadened its scope; Askew disagrees with Shevin's broad interpretation of law; before '67, secret decision-making on local level was standard practice