Sunshine Week: Using Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law - The Morning Call
In the past few years, citizens have spoken out loudly about mask mandates and Critical Race Theory before school boards. They’ve questioned the fairness of the 2020 election. They’ve challenged the decisions of state officials to shut down the economy amid the pandemic.
To dig for evidence supporting their positions, citizens have given the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law quite a workout.
This week is Sunshine Week, a national effort promoting open government and freedom of information. I always celebrate the week by reminding people about the power of the law and encouraging them to use it.
The more people who use it, the better. Public officials must be reminded that what they do is a matter of public record. The Right-to-Know Law is a deterrent to backroom deal making and political gamesmanship.
The beauty of the law is it doesn’t allow government to consider why someone wants records. Governments must provide records to everyone, without regard to how the information may be used.
The law presumes all records of local, county and state government agencies are public, unless they specifically are excluded. Examples of excluded records are those about security, trade secrets, personal financial information and criminal investigations.
It’s difficult to say how many Right-to-Know requests are filed annually in Pennsylvania. No agency tracks that. To get a tally, you’d have to ask each school district, municipality, county and state agency.
One way to gauge the volume is by how many appeals are handled by the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records. It adjudicates disputes over access to government files. In 2021, it received the most appeals ever, 2,990.
That’s not only an indication that many people are seeking access to government records, but an indication that they aren’t giving up when the government refuses to hand over documents.
“Citizens are keeping a closer eye on how all levels of public government are acting and are often unwilling to accept an agency’s public remarks as the final answer,” Office of Open Records Executive Director, Liz Wagenseller wrote in her agency’s 2021 annual report released Monday..
“Based on the record-breaking number of appeals our office decided, the Right-to-Know Law appears to now have a permanent place in the toolbox for active citizens.”
Here are a few shining examples of how the law exposed questionable government actions last year. They are mentioned in Monday’s annual report.
Sometimes, they ignore requests. Or, they play games, figuring the average citizen isn’t familiar enough with the law to know they are being given the runaround.
It’s not hard to find examples. I found several in the Office of Open Records rulings issued on just one day, Monday.
Joseph Kuzo asked for emails between township workers. The law requires a government to answer a request within five business days. It can take 30 days if time is needed to gather documents or conduct a legal analysis about whether requested documents are public.
That means the request was considered to be denied. Kuzo appealed to the Office of Open Records. The township ignored the appeal, too, and Kuzo won his case Monday.
“There is no dispute that the records requested — emails between agency employees — are public records,” appeals officer Erin Burlew wrote.
source: https://www.mcall.com/opinion/mc-opi-pennsylvania-public-records-right-to-know-law-muschick-20220316-myiu4hdbt5hvzoavfvjnmp2c44-story.html
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