The corrosive impact of moneyed interests in politics has been on full display in Orange County in the struggle to get earned sick time on the November ballot. Public records are beginning to reveal how closely efforts to keep the initiative off the November ballot were coordinated between the Orange County Commission and lobbyists for Disney, Darden and other big businesses.
Not surprisingly, commissioners have resisted turning over these incriminating public records, so Citizens for a Greater Orange County, the group that gathered more than 50,000 signatures from voters to put earned sick time on the ballot, have filed a lawsuit to require accountability from the County Commission.
These public officials are not above the law. We have a right to know who is keeping citizens from voting for earned sick time. Politicians do not have the right to destroy or attempt to destroy public records. This is the type of corruption Florida’s sunshine laws seek to prevent.
Click here for the Orlando Sentinel Op-Ed
