Police Officer Pulls Gun on Complainant Inside Police Station

WTAE Channel 4 obtained photos taken minutes after a Blairsville, Pennsylvania police officer pulled a gun on a man inside the police station while making a complaint against his landlord. Officer Janelle Lydic said Christopher Hall became enraged when she tried to escort him out of the police station.

Click here to see the photos obtained through the open records laws.

Pennsylvania Judge Says Addresses Don't Need to be Released in Emergency Logs

A York County, Pennsylvania judge ruled that the county could refuse to release addresses in emergency time response logs and still comply with the commonwealth's Right-to-Know law. In making his ruling, President Judge Richard K. Renn noted that the citizen's privacy concerns were compelling, particularly in an emergency situation. The York Daily Record/Sunday News requested time response logs in order to audit emergency response times.

Click here for the judge's opinion and here for some community response.

Pennsylvania Enjoys Signal Improvement on its Right-to-Know Law Anniversary

As the one-year anniversary of Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law approaches, open records advocates are hailing the improvements the Commonwealth has made under the new law.

The new law provides a first-stage appeal with the taxpayer-funded open records office, whose lawyers issue binding opinions. It also established a new presumption in the law that almost all records are open unless the government proves otherwise.

While the improvements are being praised, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes there have also been criticism of some rulings the office acknowledged as mistakes, tensions with the Governor's administration, budget cut fears, and concerns that the new process is bogging down instead of speeding up the process.

Learn more here.

Investigative Team Finds Pennsylvania Lacking in Transparency, Despite New Right to Know Law

Pittsburgh's Team 4 reports that despite a new Right to Know Law, aimed at improving Pennsylvania government transparency, the Legislature is not being forthcoming. For example, the Legislature doesn't post online all of its leases for lawmakers' district offices, citing the need to redact signatures from the leases, even though Team 4 reports the Legislature promised to post the records online. Get the full report here.

The investigative team wanted online access as part of its investigation that asks, "With our ability now to e-mail and get things done on the Internet, why do lawmakers still have so many district offices?"

Pennsylvania legislators are allowed to make their own deals with landlords for their district offices. An investigation into relationships found that 15 lawmakers in Western Pennsylvania have accepted campaign contributions from their district office landlords, and one state senator even had a financial interest in the group owning the building from which he leased his district office. Get the more details here.

Click here for the interactive map of district offices.

Washington Task Force to Consider an Open Records Board

The Washington state attorney general and state auditor launched a task force to consider how to create a publicly-funded open-records board or commission to decide open-records and open-meetings quickly and outside of court.   The task force includes representatives from the state legislature, government, unions, lawyers and citizen activists.  The task force will craft a recommendation for lawmakers to consider in January.  

For more information about the task force and the Pennsylvania and Connecticut models being considered, click here.  

Judge temporarily halts release school employees home addresses

After Pennsylvania State Education Association's petition to exempt school district employees' home addresses from public records, a state appellate court judge issued a temporary halt and is expected to schedule a hearing, the AP reported. The state's revised Right-to-Know Law exempts the home addresses of judges, law enforcement officers and minors from public records. The state's largest teachers' union wants the same treatment for school employees.

A state appellate court judge has ordered a temporary halt to releasing school district employees' home addresses listed on records requests made under Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law.

The order issued Tuesday by Commonwealth Court Senior Judge Rochelle Friedman was made in response to a petition brought late last week by the state's largest teachers' union.

Friedman was expected to schedule a hearing on the Pennsylvania State Education Association's request to permanently end the release of school employees' home addresses.

More here.

Budget cut will 'gut the progress' of Penn. Office of Open Records

Terry Mutchler, Pennsylvania's first executive director of the Office of Open Records, says the projected budget cuts will defeat the purpose of the newly created office. The office is expecting to be underfunded by $300,000. With such a cut, staff will have to be let go, and more and more citizens will have no option (other than going to court, if they can afford it) for contesting a denial of requested records. Since May 2009, the office has processed about 600 appeals, 2,400 e-mails, 1,200 phone calls and conducted more than 200 FOI training sessions with nine staffers. Some decisions have gone to court, which requires full-time legal attention. "But the reality is that the office is in its infancy and does not have fat to cut. This is not just cutting money -- it's cutting the commitment to ensuring open and honest government."

All is not well at Pennsylvania's new Office of Open Records.

As its first executive director, that is a very difficult but necessary truth to express. I am asking citizens and other open-government advocates for their help. We are at a cross-roads and it is only fair that citizens have an accurate and honest picture of what's happening with this portion of their government.

Pennsylvania rewrote its archaic Right-to-Know Law and created an independent office to resolve records disputes. As of Jan. 1, all records of the government were presumed to be open. Gov. Ed Rendell and Sen. Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi championed this cause, and I applaud them for pulling Pennsylvania out of the dark ages.

More here.

See also, Budget cuts threaten disclosure

Jon & Kate's divorce record will be sealed

Jon and Kate Gosselin have shifted their divorce case out of their hometown in Berks County to Montgomery County, which is 50 miles away, the AP reported. It could be because divorce records are open in Berks but sealed in Montgomery. The policy in Montgomery might be open to a legal challenge, however, because the Pennsylvania Constitution declares that "all courts shall be open."

Jon and Kate Gosselin don't live in Montgomery County, Pa. So why are the stars of "Jon & Kate Plus 8" getting divorced there?

One likely answer: to take advantage of an unusual local rule that keeps prying eyes away from divorce records. In Montgomery County, a wealthy enclave outside Philadelphia, divorce filings are automatically placed under seal — barring access to the media and the public and allowing fractious couples like the Gosselins to dissolve their broken marriages in private.

The rule was written decades ago, before no-fault divorce became an option and at a time when divorce petitions tended to be more explosive and salacious than they are today, said Richard Hodgson, the county's president judge.

More here.

Newspaper uncovers water sample results via FOIA

FOI at Work!
The Exponent Telegram received copies of the weekly reports on water samples collected by the the city of Clarksburg, W. Va., via FOIA. Although the state doesn't have a standard for the level of total dissolved solids that are allowed in public waterways, the average level being discharged into the West Fork River is 527 parts per million. Pennsylvania has a limit of 500 parts per million. Levels in Clarksburg have reached as high as 852 parts per million.

Although West Virginia has not set a standard for the levels of total dissolved solids allowed in public waterways, the average levels being discharged at Clarksburg’s wastewater plant are higher than those allowed in Pennsylvania, records show.

Plant Superintendent Bill Goodwin said the average level of total dissolved solids being discharged into the West Fork River is 527 parts per million. Pennsylvania allows no more than 500 parts per million.

He said the amount by which Clarksburg exceeds Pennsylvania’s standard is quite small.

More here.

Penn. newspaper denied credit-card receipts

From The News-Item:

Northumberland County President Judge Robert B. Sacavage has sought advice from the state on how to proceed with Commissioner Vinny Clausi’s request for credit-card receipts from the Adult Probation Department.

The issue has mushroomed into a debate over the public’s right to know, separation of powers and record-keeping procedures in the county.

The News-Item has filed official requests for the same documents through the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law (RTK) and Rule of Judicial Administration 509. While the RTK request was denied, the court has 10 days from the day of receipt, which was Wednesday, to respond to the Rule 509 request.

More here.

American reporter causes stir in British Parliament

In 2001, Heather Brooke, a 38-year-old reporter from Pennsylvania, requested details on British lawmakers' expenses, but her request was met with derision, the AP reported. She submitted her request again in 2005 with no success. Even three years later when Britain's information ombudsman ordered that lawmakers' receipts be released, the parliament speaker tried to stop publication of the data. Britain's High Court rejected the appeal and ordered the release. Although the data won't be released until July, the Telegraph obtained the information early and printed details of lawmakers charging horse manure, porn movies, housekeepers and tennis court repairs to their expense accounts.

It took a sassy American to force stuffy British lawmakers to come clean over their expenses.

Heather Brooke, a 38-year-old Pennsylvania-born reporter, has become the scourge of parliament, forcing the publication of legislators' expenses claims following a five-year legal battle that has exposed Britain's deep-rooted culture of official secrecy.

The expense bills reveal how lawmakers frittered away public money with claims for porn movies, chandeliers and housekeepers or repaired their tennis court, swimming pool or helicopter pad.

More here.

Penn. law likely to change how e-mail is handled

Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know law includes all electronic information in what is presumed to be a public record. The law is likely to lead to new policies on what is considered public versus private electronic communications and how e-mails are preserved, according to the law firm Nauman, Smith, Shissler & Hall.

Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know law stands to change the way many government entities administrate public records, particularly the way e-mail messages are handled, according to Guy P. Beneventano, municipal law expert and partner in the Harrisburg law firm Nauman, Smith, Shissler & Hall, LLP.

"As a general rule, all records, including information maintained electronically, are presumed to be public records," Mr. Beneventano said today. "That includes email messages created, received or retained as of January 1, 2009, which means government entities should start with the understanding that the email is part of an official public record if it is sent or received in the ordinary course of the government's business."

Mr. Beneventano said that public access to email communications is limited only if the email fits one of three categories of exemptions in the law. "The email is presumed to be a public record unless it fits one of thirty statutory exceptions; unless it is protected by a legal privilege -- such as attorney-client privilege; or unless it is otherwise exempt from disclosure by some other federal or state law, regulation or court order."

More here.

York Daily Record gears up for Sunshine Week

The York Daily Record promises special investigative reports, documents of interest and information on Pennsylvania's new open records law, all in honor of Sunshine Week.

"Sunshine Week," a national effort by media, schools, civic groups, libraries and others to draw attention to public records issues, begins Sunday.

Visit the York Daily Record/Sunday News' open records page, Full Disclosure, for columns on national open records issues, as well as the newspaper's ongoing coverage of right-to-know stories, original documents, "Record Tracker" blog, and links to other sites about open records.

More here.

Penn. FOI director says state is in 'new era of openness'

The York Daily Record spoke with Kim de Bourbon, executive director of the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition, in honor of Sunshine Week. In regards to the state's 2-year-old right-to-know law, De Bourbon said, "For the first time, government agencies are being told they have not followed the law in denying access to records." For example, the Office of Open Records ruled that "a secretary's tape recording of a public meeting -- even if made only for the purposes of writing up the minutes -- is a public record and accessible to the public." She hopes that fees will be addressed in the future and that agencies will start providing records online via PDFs.

As part of Sunshine Week, a national effort to raise awareness of public records, the York Daily Record/Sunday News asked Kim de Bourbon, executive director of the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition, some questions about the state's new open records law, which is 21/2 months old.

More here.

New Penn. law coming in handy

Media outlets and citizens in Pennsylvania are realizing that the state's new Right to Know Law is providing more records than the last version, The Morning Call reported. The previous law didn't assume that most records are public. The state open records office has 100 pending appeals to review. So far it has overturned three of six appeals.

Early evidence shows Pennsylvania's new Right to Know Law is doing what it's designed to, giving the public more access to records that show how governments are behaving and spending tax money.

Last week, the state open records office posted rulings on its first six appeals. In three cases, one in Quakertown, it ruled governments must provide information they initially refused to release.

Governments could have kept the information secret under the old Right to Know law in two of those cases, said Barry Fox, deputy director of open records.

More here.

No exemptions for names, birthdays of Pa. contractors

The new Pennsylvania Office of Open Records ruled that names of employees are public records, even if the employees work for government contractors, the AP reported. Government employees' birth dates are also not exempted from the Right-to-Know Law in the state.

Pennsylvania's Office of Open Records says the names of employees of government contractors and the birth dates of government employees are public records.

The new agency said in its first batch of rulings that the names and dates of birth aren't covered by the many exceptions to the state Right-to-Know Law.

The Quakertown Community School District had granted a request to release payroll forms for a subcontractor working on a school renovation project, but redacted the employees' names.

More here.

Meeting tapes are not exempt from Penn. FOI

Pennsylvania's tougher FOI law, which went into effect in January, does not exempt audio tapes of meetings, the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition reported. The advisory opinion was issued by Terry Mutchler of the state Open Records office. Franklin Park borough, which sought the advice, is expected to adopt a policy outlining how long tapes will be retained by local governments or stop having the secretary record government meetings.

Pennsylvania's open-records chief says audio recordings of government meetings are public records that must be provided to people who request them.

Terry Mutchler of the state Open Records Office issued an advisory opinion sought by Franklin Park borough in Allegheny County.

The borough secretary tapes council meetings to help in writing the official minutes.

More here.

More details from the Pennyslvania Freedom of Information Coalition here.

New Penn. Office of Open Records already overworked

Some citizens don't understand the purpose of the Office of Open Records and have requested help for things like getting the address of an old classmate. Despite some misunderstanding, the office is nevertheless busy sifting through appeals filed by citizens who have had records requests denied and providing "advisory opinions" on certain questions. Lawyers are also trying to "fine-tune the boundaries of Pennsylvania's new law."

As with anything new, Pennsylvania's fledgling Office of Open Records is experiencing some growing pains.

Created Jan. 1 as a result of last year's open-records reform legislation, the office has encountered some interesting cases in its first month of operation.

The challenges include navigating the road between the public's right to know and what people just want to know.

More here.

Transparency after a done deal does little good

The new Right-to-Know Law makes it only voluntarily for Pennsylvania school boards to disclose the terms of contract proposals before they are signed.

Pennsylvania taxpayers have a right to know what their respective school districts are doing -- before it's too late to do anything about it.

The commonwealth's new Right-to-Know Law should have ensured complete transparency. Unfortunately, it does not, according to Terry Mutchler, executive director of the new Office of Open Records.

The public has every right to demand accountability. It should never be forced to come to school boards, hat in hand, begging to be given information about the untold costs to taxpayers.

More here.

Autopsy records are public in Pa.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that autopsy records must be made available to the public despite privacy concerns. Judges, however, can withhold records based on "discretion and necessity."

The state Supreme Court ruled today that autopsy reports are public records.

In a 5-1 decision, the state's top court overturned a lower court ruling and wrote that under the state's Coroner's Act autopsy reports should be considered "official records and papers" and made available to the public.

The case stemmed from two newspapers, The Morning Call and Express-Times, who sued after Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim refused to provide a copy of an autopsy report of a police officer who had been shot and killed.

More here.