Sep 2009
Opinion: Right to Know and the constitutional right to privacy
September 23, 2009 | Filed in: Opinion
| New RTK
Law | Open
records | Privacy
| Addresses
| Office of
Open Records
Last month, when the Commonwealth Court issued
its first published opinion addressing
Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law, it shone a
bright light on a long-standing issue: the
inherent tension between the public's right to
access government records and a person's interest
in the privacy of information that the government
possesses about him. The Commonwealth Court's
recent opinion, Pennsylvania State Education
Association v. Commonwealth, further muddles the
privacy question and, unless corrected, stands to
cause an array of additional problems.
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Open-records requests cost Elco time, money
MYERSTOWN - Elco [Eastern Lebanon County School
District] remains committed to abiding by the
state's open-records law, school-board President
Donna Moyer said Monday night, but the procedures
are growing "a bit expensive." Read
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New Pa. Open Records law helps author uncover more information on mine fire
Former News-Item and Patriot News reporter David
DeKok has written a revised and updated book
about the mine fire in Centralia that details the
relocation of residents, demolition of most of
the town and the resistance of a few diehards.
"Pennsylvania's new Open Records Act, which took
effect at the beginning of 2009, greatly aided my
research," DeKok said. Read
More...
PNA Legal Hotline: RTK Law governs access to draft minutes, tape recordings
September 17, 2009 | Filed in: Opinion
| PNA Legal
| Open
records | Open
meetings | Tape
recordings | New RTK
Law | Sunshine
Act
Q: The school board secretary makes a tape
recording of all school board meetings and uses
the recording to draft meeting minutes.
Occasionally, it takes the school board months to
complete and adopt meeting minutes based on this
recording, and they refuse to release the tape
recording or draft minutes. Is the tape recording
a public record? How long can the school board
take to adopt official minutes?Can I get a copy
of the draft minutes? Read
More...
911 tapes raise more questions about crash victim police didn't find
September 17, 2009 | Filed in: RTK request
stories | 911 logs
Newly released 911 audio recordings show that
three callers reported a vehicle that had crashed
in February off the Northeast Extension of the
Pennsylvania Turnpike, leading to the death of a
Taylor man. Read
More...
New Pa. public-records law: lots of requests ... & lawsuits
Since the beginning of the year, a new
Pennsylvania law on public records has been
sending tremors through state and local
governments. Unprecedented numbers of citizens,
civic groups, reporters and businesses have filed
thousands of requests for government documents
and data. Now come the aftershocks: Dozens of
public-record lawsuits are piling up in
courthouses around the state, waiting for judges
to spit out rulings on what the law really means.
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Williams Twp. to add secretarial hours to process open records requests
The mountain of trash at the Chrin Bros. Sanitary
Landfill and other contentious issues in Williams
Township have spurred the growth of another
mountain -- one of open record requests.
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Opinion: Pre-registration for public comment at meetings unreasonable
Q: A new township policy requires anyone
wishing to give public comment at a public
meeting to sign up 3 days in advance and register
the topics they will discuss. If you don’t
preregister, you can’t speak at the meeting. Is
this OK? Read
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Opinion: What’s going on with the Sunshine Law?
September 11, 2009 | Filed in: Opinion
| Sunshine
Act | SB
101 Sunshine Act Amendment
| Open
meetings
Senate Bill 101, sponsored by Sen. Lloyd Smucker,
has been in the House State Government Committee
since June 3, 2009, after final passage in the
Senate with a 48-1 vote. It could be the bill is
destined to die in the House, the fate of a
similar bill to strengthen the state’s Sunshine
Act penalities that got nowhere in 2007.
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York Twp. board to appeal open records ruling
The York Township board of commissioners voted
Tuesday to appeal a landmark decision from the
Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, but attached
one proviso -- taxpayers won't foot the bill.
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Lackawanna Court upholds Office of Open Records decision
In a September 9, 2009 memorandum and order,
Judge Terrence R. Nealon of the Lackawanna County
Court of Common Pleas ruled that unsuccessful
bids in the possession of a government contractor
are public records. The decision is the first one
in which a court has considered the obligations
of government contractors under the new Right to
Know Law. Read
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Open-records office withdraws from Luzerne Co. case
The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records has
withdrawn from a court case appealing its own
ruling that Luzerne County must disclose who gets
health-care benefits from the county.
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Opinion: Update on public notice, open records bills
September 03, 2009 | Filed in: Opinion
| Government
transparency | Public notice
law | HB 677
| SB 419
Public Notice Act | Open
records | New RTK
Law | HB1876
| HB 795
Legal Notices Act
In case you’ve been keeping score, there was
movement on two damaging public notice bills last
session, both of which died in the Senate – one
in Appropriations and the other tabled on the
floor calendar. So far this year, there has been
activity in both the House and the Senate, with
local government organizations pushing five
virtually identical bills this session.
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Harveys Lake official raises concerns about alleged questionable purchases
September 03, 2009 | Filed in: RTK request
stories | Harveys
Lake
HARVEYS LAKE - General Municipal Authority of
Harveys Lake board members, stunned by
allegations of questionable purchases by
authority employees, vowed to investigate.
Councilman Charles Musial, who is also a police officer, revealed to the board at Wednesday's meeting that, acting on queries by residents about their sewer fees, he filed a Right-to-Know-Act request on authority records for 2007-08 and also did some research on his own. Musial said he was acting as a civilian and had to pay the municipal authority $150 for the records. Read More...
Councilman Charles Musial, who is also a police officer, revealed to the board at Wednesday's meeting that, acting on queries by residents about their sewer fees, he filed a Right-to-Know-Act request on authority records for 2007-08 and also did some research on his own. Musial said he was acting as a civilian and had to pay the municipal authority $150 for the records. Read More...
Ex-York tech school director paid as part of settlement
September 02, 2009 | Filed in: RTK request
stories | York Co.
The former director of the York School of
Technology is still on the payroll. James A.
Kraft, who resigned June 30, is entitled to full
salary and benefits until the end of March 2010
as part of an agreement that stemmed from
"disputes" between the school and Kraft,
according to the agreement he signed June 19. The
settlement agreement was obtained by the Daily
Record/Sunday News after a right-to-know request.
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