Opinion: Shut down these records!
OPINION
Update from the Capitol
By Deb Musselman
Pennsylvania Newspaper Association
Director of Government Affairs
As 2009 comes to a close, we know already that PNA will be fighting three recently-introduced bills that are intended to close more records, all of which were reported from their original committees this week.
The House Education Committee followed its Senate counterpart’s action earlier this past fall by endorsing the bill sought by the School Boards Association and PSEA, the state’s largest teachers’ union, to close access to school employee home addresses under the School Code. Conscientious teachers’ homes have been spray-painted, we are told, by students who resent their “rigorous” approach in the classroom. House Bill 1944, along with its companion, Senate Bill 993, is the proposed solution. Never mind all those tax rolls and other records that are open by law; supporters ignore the fact that these addresses are already, and will remain, public by law.
The bill's ban on disclosure would extend to virtually anyone remotely employed in or near education – including janitors in the State System of Higher Education, according to the drafting of the bill. It turns out that this legislation represents the latest effort to restrict the Association of Retired School Employees from obtaining teacher addresses for the purpose of membership recruitment.
What else happened? You’ll recall that the coroners lost a crucial court battle this past spring, when the PA Supreme Court ruled in Advance Publications v Grim that the Northampton County coroner was indeed required to file his records with the county prothonotary, as argued by the Express-Times, Easton and as required by law.
Since they lost in court, they want to change the law. Enter Senate Bill 1091, which would amend the Coroner’s Act to prevent access to official records of the coroner, including autopsy reports. It would also delay access to the few items that are now immediately available under the Right-to-Know Law: Name, cause and manner of death.
PNA negotiated this issue in good faith while Senate Bill 1 was being reviewed and negotiated, and we didn’t get what we considered necessary. It’s disheartening now to see efforts to make even that scanty information subject to the one-year delay in providing access, which the Coroner’s Law permits. We’ll be fighting this one vigorously, as well.
Last but not least, we find that the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association wants to be removed from the Right to Know Law, and the Office of Open Records appeals process, and instead release information based on the recommendations of a group of six legislators.
Senate Bill 1135 would exempt PIAA from the RTLK and place it under the guidance of a special legislative commission, created a decade ago to assess PIAA’s deficiencies in accountability. Lead executives from PIAA who spoke before the Senate Education Committee claimed that its current status, under the RTLK, as a “state-related entity,” requires them to consult with Treasury about payments to its non-profit, and General Services on its public contracts.
We don’t read the law that way. It’s a fact that PIAA has a monopoly over high school athletics in Pennsylvania, and virtually determines the course of their future lives for many talented youth. The PIAA was identified as one of numerous “state-affiliated” entities during almost the entire course of the 2007-08 consideration of Senate Bill 1. Sen. Pileggi’s October 2007 amendment incorporated that definition and crafted the law’s overall format, under which the bill – in its tenth printer’s number – was ultimately signed by the Governor, in February, 2008.
Placing any agency purely under the oversight of a legislative committee, with no fixed standards, appeals procedure, or checks and balances – a group that is subject to policy changes based on changes in committee membership – is particularly inappropriate when it comes to the youth of our state. The recent, still-unfolding scandal in northeastern Pennsylvania shows the tragic abuse that a lack of transparency ultimately can produce.
Update from the Capitol
By Deb Musselman
Pennsylvania Newspaper Association
Director of Government Affairs
As 2009 comes to a close, we know already that PNA will be fighting three recently-introduced bills that are intended to close more records, all of which were reported from their original committees this week.
The House Education Committee followed its Senate counterpart’s action earlier this past fall by endorsing the bill sought by the School Boards Association and PSEA, the state’s largest teachers’ union, to close access to school employee home addresses under the School Code. Conscientious teachers’ homes have been spray-painted, we are told, by students who resent their “rigorous” approach in the classroom. House Bill 1944, along with its companion, Senate Bill 993, is the proposed solution. Never mind all those tax rolls and other records that are open by law; supporters ignore the fact that these addresses are already, and will remain, public by law.
The bill's ban on disclosure would extend to virtually anyone remotely employed in or near education – including janitors in the State System of Higher Education, according to the drafting of the bill. It turns out that this legislation represents the latest effort to restrict the Association of Retired School Employees from obtaining teacher addresses for the purpose of membership recruitment.
What else happened? You’ll recall that the coroners lost a crucial court battle this past spring, when the PA Supreme Court ruled in Advance Publications v Grim that the Northampton County coroner was indeed required to file his records with the county prothonotary, as argued by the Express-Times, Easton and as required by law.
Since they lost in court, they want to change the law. Enter Senate Bill 1091, which would amend the Coroner’s Act to prevent access to official records of the coroner, including autopsy reports. It would also delay access to the few items that are now immediately available under the Right-to-Know Law: Name, cause and manner of death.
PNA negotiated this issue in good faith while Senate Bill 1 was being reviewed and negotiated, and we didn’t get what we considered necessary. It’s disheartening now to see efforts to make even that scanty information subject to the one-year delay in providing access, which the Coroner’s Law permits. We’ll be fighting this one vigorously, as well.
Last but not least, we find that the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association wants to be removed from the Right to Know Law, and the Office of Open Records appeals process, and instead release information based on the recommendations of a group of six legislators.
Senate Bill 1135 would exempt PIAA from the RTLK and place it under the guidance of a special legislative commission, created a decade ago to assess PIAA’s deficiencies in accountability. Lead executives from PIAA who spoke before the Senate Education Committee claimed that its current status, under the RTLK, as a “state-related entity,” requires them to consult with Treasury about payments to its non-profit, and General Services on its public contracts.
We don’t read the law that way. It’s a fact that PIAA has a monopoly over high school athletics in Pennsylvania, and virtually determines the course of their future lives for many talented youth. The PIAA was identified as one of numerous “state-affiliated” entities during almost the entire course of the 2007-08 consideration of Senate Bill 1. Sen. Pileggi’s October 2007 amendment incorporated that definition and crafted the law’s overall format, under which the bill – in its tenth printer’s number – was ultimately signed by the Governor, in February, 2008.
Placing any agency purely under the oversight of a legislative committee, with no fixed standards, appeals procedure, or checks and balances – a group that is subject to policy changes based on changes in committee membership – is particularly inappropriate when it comes to the youth of our state. The recent, still-unfolding scandal in northeastern Pennsylvania shows the tragic abuse that a lack of transparency ultimately can produce.