Just one of every five open-records requests submitted to Westmoreland County this year was granted, according to the gatekeeper of those documents. Westmoreland County this year fielded requests from the public for about 500 documents, the most ever received, according to county officials.
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With the revamping of open records laws in Pennsylvania earlier this year, the Williamsport Sun-Gazette agreed to become part of an effort with The Associated Press and other newspapers statewide to see just how accessible government records are in municipalities and school districts.
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POTTSTOWN — As it turns out, freedom of information is not free. The changes to Pennsylvania's Right to Know Law come at a cost to taxpayers, say officials with the Pottstown School District — $13,217 to be exact -- and that's just the legal fees.
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Many issues that have arisen during the first year under Pennsylvania's revised Right-to-Know Law, which may soon be amended. Should taxpayers have to foot a part of the cost of massive requests? How does the law work when the records are also integral to an ongoing lawsuit? Should the government be able to cancel a request it deems to be a practical impossibility?
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A new test of how government agencies respond to records requests shows that a year after Pennsylvania's revamped Right-to-Know Law took effect, it may be transforming attitudes among public officials about the public documents and information under their control. Over two days this fall, reporters and others from 33 Pennsylvania newspapers, a TV station, and a community college journalism class filed 274 requests for public records from police agencies, local government offices and school districts in an audit coordinated by The Associated Press.
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NORRISTOWN — The Times Herald partnered with The Associated Press in its 2009 audit of the Pennsylvania Right-To-Know Law by sending several staffers on undercover assignments to various municipalities, school districts and police departments throughout the coverage area in early October. Read More...

How the audit of compliance with Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law was conducted. Read More...

List of news organizations that participated in the design and execution of the 2009 audit survey of compliance with Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law. Read More...

During two days in early October, five surveyors dispatched by the Centre Daily Times drove more than 230 miles and traveled to 11 public agencies in Centre County to test the state's almost year-old Right-to-Know Law. Read More...

Public Opinion participated in the 2009 Audit of Public Access to Government Records, requesting five items from five different departments with two failures among them: Shippensburg Police Department and Franklin County 911. Read More...

As part of the Associated Press' Right-to-Know Law audit, staff writers Kent Jackson, Coulter Jones and Bob Kalinowski canvassed communities in The Citizens' Voice's and Standard-Speaker's coverage area over several days in October. They made requests for what are supposed to be public documents, and didn't identify themselves as newspaper reporters until pressed. Here's what they encountered: Read More...

Major provisions of the Right-to-Know Law that took full effect in January 2009. Read More...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A wealth of information about the actions and decisions of Pennsylvania public officials has been pried loose in the year since a broad expansion of the state's Right-to-Know Law took effect. There are signs, including a recent spot check of government agencies, that the state is shedding its long-standing reputation as a public-access backwater. Read More...

Reporters across the state put Pennsylvania's nearly year-old open records law to the test recently in a fun but eye-opening project spearheaded by The Associated Press. Read More...

So what happens when a government hires a contractor to perform a task – engineering work, making a grant request, zoning decisions – and the contractor keeps the paperwork? How can people see documents they are entitled to see? When dealing with the smallest municipalities, governments with only a few part-time employees, it can get complicated. Read More...

In October, the York Daily Record/Sunday News made 18 right-to-know requests as part of a statewide audit of the new open records law that was led by The Associated Press. Here are the results of those requests. The records requested were public under the law. Read More...

The Newberry Township Police Department fulfilled a request for a 24-hour incident log only after requiring the requester to identify his employer. Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know law does not require requesters to identify their employer before being given access to a record, according to the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association's media law counsel. A reporter from the York Daily Record/Sunday News asked for a log of calls the department responded to Oct. 3 as part of the Associated Press' statewide audit of public access to government records under Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know law. Read More...

As 2009 comes to a close, we know already that the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association 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.
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So, Gov. Rendell, did you see what President Obama did the other day? Will you follow his lead in Pennsylvania? Obama told federal agencies to be more transparent, publish more data, and in fact, set deadlines for them to put as-yet unreleased information online. I wanted to ask Rendell if he'd do the same in Pennsylvania. Read More...

We sometimes get asked what the average man or woman can do to impact government and encourage reform. On cynical days, it’s easy to feel helpless against “the establishment.”
Besides voting (or running for office yourself), one of the best ways to get active in Pennsylvania is to take advantage of the state’s Right to Know Law. Read More...

Students at the Monroe Campus of Northampton Community College's (NCC) Journalism and Society class played an integral part in the Associated Press (AP) Pennsylvania-wide audit, "Right to Know." They were the only students to take part in the project, which otherwise included media professionals. Read More...

Terry Mutchler, executive director of the state Office of Open Records, has a quick response when asked how things are going. " 'Busy' is the short answer," Ms. Mutchler said last week. "We're just overwhelmed."

Ms. Mutchler and her nine-member staff routinely work 12-hour days or longer to keep pace with a flood of paperwork.

To date, they have processed 1,006 appeals, conducted 300 training sessions around the state on the new Right-to-Know Law and fielded more than 5,000 e-mail and telephone inquiries. Read More...

Until this year, Pennsylvania's open-records law had an abysmal reputation.

But on Jan. 1, a revised Right-to-Know Law took effect. Eleven days later, the state's newly created, independent Office of Open Records began refereeing its first dispute between the public and a government agency.

Now, Mr. Davis said, as the one-year anniversary approaches, Pennsylvania's open-records law "easily" ranks in the top third across the nation -- what he called a "signal improvement."
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Why is it still so difficult for citizens to get public documents from the Legislature a year after lawmakers passed a new law and promised a new day? WTAE Team 4 investigator Jim Parsons reports that no one knows how the Legislature is doing under the new Right To Know Law. Read More...

Bradford County President Judge Jeffrey Smith has hired a private attorney to fight The Review's effort to inspect the non-judicial content of a copy of the hard drives on computers he used. Read More...

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. Read More...

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 More...

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...

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...

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. Read More...

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. Read More...

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 More...

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. Read More...

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. Read More...

Corruption hunters have a target-rich environment not only in Northeast Pennsylvania but in many parts of the commonwealth, including Harrisburg. But while federal and state prosecutors continue to work on individual criminal cases, little is being done institutionally to thwart corruption and improve governance. Read More...

A York Township commissioner said he shouldn't have to file Right-to-Know requests to the township to get information that he plans to address during board of commissioner meetings. Read More...

The public's right to know — which was enshrined in a robust new Pennsylvania law that took effect eight months ago — has become the target of roll-back efforts by local and state agencies. Read More...

HARRISBURG - The state Senate has released a list of 66 contracts and leases that will be posted soon on the Treasury contracts Web site to comply with the state open-records law. Read More...

HARRISBURG - Online for one year, the Pennsylvania Contracts e-Library is one of the first fruits of the state's new open records law.
This e-library ostensibly allows the public to search and review on a Web site many state contracts worth more than $5,000 that have been awarded since July 1, 2008, by state agencies and the Legislature. The open records law requires state and legislative agencies to file these contracts (with some exceptions) within 10 days after the contract is fully executed with the state Treasury for posting. But not all contracts that fit the law's requirements are on the Treasury Web site. Read More...

NORRISTOWN — In a victory for public information, an officer from the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records granted an appeal from a Times Herald reporter seeking documents that were originally denied for release from a Montgomery County authority. Read More...

We are just past halfway through the first year of Pennsylvania’s new Open Records Law and the public’s access to information is again under siege. Read More...

It’s been a busy spring and summer defending against a plethora of legislative proposals that all reduce citizens’ access to information, from ‘shoppers’ bills that would steer controversial legal notices to that junk mail at the foot of your driveway, to Internet ‘advertising’ that would give a leg up to somebody’s best buddy – oops, pre-qualified bidder. Read More...

The Office of Open Records will issue no final determinations ordering the release of public employee home addresses, pending resolution of a petition made by the Pennsylvania State Education Association by the Commonwealth Court . Read More...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — 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. Read More...

The union representing most public school employees in Pennsylvania yesterday won a temporary injunction in Commonwealth Court to shield the home addresses of all public-school employees under the new open-records law. Read More...

God help us when government tries to protect us. House Bill 1667 would amend Pennsylvania's right-to-know law to exclude date of birth as information of public record. Read More...

In an order dated July 28, 2009, Commonwealth Court Senior Judge Rochelle S. Friedman granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the release of home addresses of public school employees. Read More...

We’ve said it before, but it really is all about the public’s right to know – public records verify current and past government activity, and public notices tell us what government is planning in our own backyard. Read More...

Volunteer fire and ambulance organizations are making a strong push for relief from Pennsylvania's Right to Know Law, a movement that is getting support in the state Legislature and drawing criticism from open records advocates. Read More...

A recent court ruling excusing volunteer fire companies from responding to requests under the state's Right-to-Know Law was on the mark, said a local state representative and volunteer fire chief. A media attorney disagrees. Read More...

York County's refusal to release addresses or locations along with dispatch and arrival times of emergency responders is not an attempt to stop the York Daily Record/Sunday News from reviewing that data, county solicitor Michael Flannelly said Friday. Read More...

Scott Pierce, 40, Morris Township, appeared in court today to stand up for his claim that the township fire company’s records are public. Thanks in part to support from state Rep. Matt Baker, the judge ruled those records are not public at all. Read More...

Pennsylvania's new Open Records Law is far from perfect, but it proved its worth recently when the Associated Press used it to obtain previously secret records on legislative initiative grants - infamously better known as "walking around money." Read More...

One irony about Pennsylvania's Office of Open Records: It's weirdly difficult to find. The new state agency charged with resolving disputes over government transparency is at the end of a long and dim hallway in a building across the street from the Capitol. The only indication the office exists is a small sign at the hallway's entrance. Inside the Office of Open Records, however, another irony: Sunlight streams through large windows that take up most of one wall. It is hard to imagine a more vivid metaphor for the challenges facing the office and Terry Mutchler, its first executive director. Read More...

Transparency in government is worth celebrating as we prepare to mark our country's birth Saturday. It's been just six months since Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law took effect, giving it a major overhaul for the first time in 52 years. Read More...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Tens of millions of tax dollars that support Pennsylvania lawmakers' favored causes are directed by legislative leaders through a secretive process that appears to benefit some leaders' constituents the most, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. Read More...

People who make Right-to-Know requests from York Township can soon expect to see their names posted on the township's Web site. During a meeting Tuesday night, the board of commissioners voted 3-2 to post the names, dates, reasons why requesters had made the requests and the cost incurred by the township. Read More...

York County solicitor Mike Flannelly said Wednesday that the county commissioners will appeal a decision from the state Office of Open Records regarding what information the county must provide about 911 dispatches. Read More...

The state Office of Open Records ruled recently that publicly released time response logs from York County's 911 Center must include where police or fire units were headed when they were dispatched. The office made the ruling Friday in response to an appeal by the York Daily Record/Sunday News. More than two months ago, the Daily Record/Sunday News asked the county for the logs with addresses. Read More...

Q: The township supervisors do not hold office hours during the work day and work other full time jobs. I’d like to call them at home at a reasonable time. Can I get their home phone numbers via a Right to Know Law request? Read More...

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-9) and Senator Lisa Baker (R-20), chair of the Senate’s Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness Committee, will introduce legislation to clarify the status of volunteer fire companies and other volunteer emergency responders under Pennsylvania’s new Right-to-Know Law. Read More...

EAST STROUDSBURG — One resident of East Stroudsburg Area School District wanted to see the internal investigation into how the district sold a classroom trailer on eBay for $1. An aspiring school board member for that district requested all the correspondence between administrators and board members from this year. A sitting board member asked to receive complete copies of legal bills.

These are some of the requests that reflect a flurry of activity sparked by the state's newly robust Right to Know Law. Since the beginning of the year, requests have been peppering the area's four school districts. Read More...

Q: Can agencies withhold documents until my check clears and its financial department gives the go ahead? Read More...

A York Township commissioner said Tuesday night the public should know how much Right-to-Know requests are costing the township and taxpayers. As part of a presentation during Tuesday's meeting, commissioner Paul Knepper used an overhead projector to show the names of people who had made requests and how much each request had cost the township and the person.
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No one said implementing Pennsylvania's new Right-To-Know Law was going to be easy. There have been some problems in the four months since the law took effect. Read More...

For employees and officials of municipal authorities, are e-mail messages open for public inspection? In many (if not most) cases, the answer is a qualified yes. Moreover, surprising as it may seem, many text messages must be kept (in some form) for years as official public records of the municipal authority. Read More...

Pennsylvania's updated open records law was supposed to start an era of transparency Jan. 1, but it has raised troubling issues along the way. Read More...

A York Township commissioner presented a plan during the board of commissioners' meeting Tuesday night that would allow the township to publish the names of people who make Right-to-Know requests. Read More...

The executive director of the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records complains that the Rendell administration is throwing up roadblocks to greater transparency. But Terry Mutchler might want to review her own office's record. Read More...

It took no time at all, only about three months, for elected Pennsylvania officials to mount a highly significant challenge to the state's fledgling Right-to-Know Law. Most observers expected a push against what had been hailed by lawmakers last year as a comprehensive defense against efforts to keep the public in the dark, especially the practice of conducting secret deliberations before springing a decision upon citizens left to wonder how they got there. And, indeed, it appears Pennsylvania's reputation as a Land of Secrets remains in intact. Read More...

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 2½ months old. Read More...

In a victory for open government, Chalfont Council decided Tuesday to continue recording its meetings. That means civic-minded citizens can stay involved by asking for copies of meeting tapes, which they can listen to at home instead of watching re-runs one night. Read More...

Citizens of Pennsylvania are being given unprecedented access to the business of its public bodies with the Right-to-Know Law revisions. But we don't get to be a fly on the wall. That's what e-mail correspondence between lawmakers and lobbyists would amount to. Read More...

Every community has one: the gadfly, the complainer, the curmudgeon. They are there to keep local government honest, with help from the state's new Right to Know Law that took effect in January. But some municipalities are starting to complain that the law is miring them in paper work and creating logistical and financial headaches. Read More...

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. Read More...

One reason state lawmakers dragged their feet for so long in updating Pennsylvania's weak open records law was because they thought most voters didn't really care much about easy access to government documents. Read More...

When Linda and Kurt Kurzmiller arrived Jan. 15 at the state's new open records office in Harrisburg, it was still under construction. Workers were filing in and out of the North Street building. There wasn't a sign outside to direct them where to go. But they made it to the office. Read More...

When Michael J. Cavanagh submitted his public records request to the Uniontown City Council, he did so with the understanding that the office would respond to the inquiry within five business days. It didn't. Read More...

PHILADELPHIA – An educational presentation on the state’s new open records law will be hosted by the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition on Tuesday, Feb. 10 in Philadelphia. Read More...

Last month the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that autopsy reports are public records. Although the court’s holding stands as a resounding victory for public access, its long-term implications are less clear, as the court expressly avoided deciding whether autopsy reports will remain accessible under the Commonwealth’s new Right to Know Law, which went into effect just three weeks before the Supreme Court handed down its decision. Read More...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's fledgling Office of Open Records, defender of the public's interest in a transparent government, turns one month old this weekend. Read More...

On any given day Kim de Bourbon is manning the discussion boards on the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition Web site, answering questions like “What recourse is available if a county or the state refuses to respond to a request?” or “Do community colleges and state-owned universities have to answer requests for number of faculty and salaries?” Read More...

As of January 1, 2009, school districts, municipalities, and state agencies are officially responding to requests for information differently. Along the Main Line, governing bodies have crafted new policies and adopted new procedures that align with the new Right to Know law, which was signed into law last year and went into effect two weeks ago.
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Terry Mutchler, executive director of the new Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, told politicians, journalists and activists yesterday the new open-records law affords them unprecedented access to government documents. But she said that access comes only if Pennsylvanians demand their public officials obey the statute’s spirit. Read More...

Should you walk into York's City Hall and glimpse a new sign that refers to the revamped Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law, pay attention to the wording that mentions the availability of police records. Read More...

HARRISBURG - As she crisscrossed the state during the summer to train public officials in the nuances of the state's new open-records law, Terry Mutchler's message boiled down to a single, defining guideline. Read More...

ALBANY — While Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law is widely considered a major change for the better, a longtime New York open-government expert claims it is fraught with potential problems. Read More...

Final installment in a five-part series of Associated Press stories on Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law. HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — It was a dubious distinction that may have done more than any other factor to produce a new Right-to-Know Law: Pennsylvania's long-standing reputation as one of the worst states when it comes to letting people know what their government is doing. Read More...

Q: What if the public record I want is in electronic form, but I don't have access to a computer? Read More...

Fourth in a five-part series of Associated Press stories on Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law.HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — In many government offices, records requests made under the state's new Right-to-Know Law may take longer than necessary to process because officials have not policed their files over the years and disposed of outdated records. Read More...

Q: Can I be denied a public record under Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law because I am not a Pennsylvania resident? Read More...

Third in a five-part series of Associated Press stories on Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Private businesses that do business with state and local governments in Pennsylvania are about to find themselves having to make some of their records available to the public. Read More...

Q: Will Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law make it easier for someone to steal my identity? Read More...

Q: What is the Pennsylvania Office of Open  Records? Read More...

First in a five-part series of Associated Press stories on Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Public-access advocates hope that widely shared frustration will subside after Jan. 1, when an overhaul of the state's Right-to-Know Law takes effect. The changes are expected to dramatically expand what people can find out about what goes on behind the scenes of the state and local governments. Read More...

Q: What is the major difference between Pennsylvania's old and new Right-to-Know laws? Read More...

Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law contains exceptions for 30 categories of records. Most do not apply to financial records or aggregated data, such as spreadsheets and databases. A summary of the exceptions: Read More...

Common questions and answers about how to file a request under Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law. Read More...

Examples of information that the government must make available to the public under Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law, and examples of government information that will remain private: Read More...

Citizens, researchers, reporters and just plain inquisitive folks will get a belated Christmas gift when a new law takes effect Jan. 1 opening more government information to public eyes. The state's revised Right-to-Know law forces more agencies, plus state lawmakers and judges, to release records. It brings Pennsylvania in line with many other states. Read More...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Weeks before the state Office of Open  Records  opens for business, it's clear that office director Terry Mutchler is not going to simply carry the water for Gov. Ed Rendell — the man who appointed her and is technically her boss. Read More...

Gov. Ed Rendell, who enacted the state's expanded open-records law with his signature, might be one of the first to violate it if state agencies follow a directive his office has issued. Read More...

Those municipalities and school districts that habitually make it difficult for citizens to obtain information about their taxpayer-supported enterprises face a day of reckoning on Jan. 1. That's when a new Right-to-Know Law takes effect, with this fundamental change: All records will be considered public documents unless specifically exempted. Read More...

HARRISBURG — People seeking most government records will soon pay no more than 25 cents a page under a new state policy. The fee system, set by the newly created Office of Open Records, will apply to all state agencies and municipal governments when the state's Right to Know Law takes effect Jan. 1. Read More...

HARRISBURG (AP) — Starting next year, citizens seeking copies of most public records in Pennsylvania won't be charged more than a quarter a page, under an order that the state's open-records chief plans to issue Monday.
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Open government and transparency are the types of issues that people from all areas of the political spectrum can unite behind and support. Because when a governmental body like the Radnor Township School Board makes a decision, as many of my great elementary school teachers from Radnor stressed to me when I was a student, it is critical that they show their work. Read More...

As state officials prepare to oversee a new open records law, senators sought assurances Monday that the law will not burden local governments or lead to more identity theft. Read More...

By SEAN ADKINS
[York] Daily Record/Sunday News

A revamped Pennsylvania Right to Know Law does not call for a state agency to be penalized should it opt not to hand over contracts that would have otherwise been included in a new online public database.

State agencies are responsible for providing the information for the online database maintained by the Pennsylvania Treasury Department.

However, the department would not take any action against a state agency that does not file a contract.

And the Right to Know Law doesn't allow for a fine or any action against the state agency for not submitting most contracts to the database.

But, the Right to Know Law does state that most contracts need to be filed with the treasury department within 10 days of a document's execution date to be posted online.

"It's almost like a self-policing type of thing," Elizabeth Kupchinsky, a treasury spokeswoman, said. "If an agency does fail to submit a contract, a member of the public can file a Right to Know request with that agency (to acquire a contract)."

A method of challenge should exist if an agency ignores the law and doesn't submit a contract to be posted online, said Melissa Melewsky, media law council with the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association.

"I certainly think we would have liked to have seen some teeth with this provision," she said. "But this is a law, and the law has to be followed."

New information online

On July 22, the treasury department unveiled the searchable online database that allows a public search through state contracts by entering criteria such as the name of the agency, grant amount or topic.

The database is not novel in that residents suddenly have access to never-before-released data, but rather now the public can view those contracts more quickly.

The money used to fund these state contracts comes from state taxes, fees and other charges, said Pennsylvania Treasurer Robin L. Weissmann.

"The whole point (for the Web site) is for people to know how their tax dollars are being spent," said Don Houser, chief of staff for Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre County.

Corman drafted a Senate bill in June 2007 that called for an online contracts database.

Before the creation of the online database, individuals needed to make a formal request with an agency to gain access to a specific contract, Houser said.

"It was a cumbersome process," he said.

Now, each agency is bound by the updated Right to Know Law to submit most contracts worth $5,000 or more to the treasury department, where legal documents executed on or after July 1 are posted to its Web site.

For example, the query "Northwest Triangle" turns up an Aug. 22 contract in which the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has agreed to give York's redevelopment authority a $1.05 million grant to remediate the downtown site.

The money will be used to clean up the Keystone Color Works building and the soil in York's Northwest Triangle.

About the updated law

On Feb. 14, Gov. Ed Rendell inked a revamped Right-to-Know Law that favors public access to records.

Under this law, state agencies must prove that a record is non-public or that an exemption forbids access.

While most of the provisions in the law take effect on Jan. 1, 2009, the online database went into action last month.

For the most part, the contracts are between state agencies and outside parties, Weissmann said.

Not every contract worth more than $5,000 will find its way to the site.

For example, the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts will create a separate Web site for its contracts, Kupchinsky said.

Also, contracts that contain information protected by certain legal principles such as attorney-client privilege are exempt.

Submissions after six weeks

So far, more than 4,600 contracts have been uploaded, Kupchinsky said.

As of Aug. 22, 67 state agencies had submitted contracts while 47 had not, she said.

Houser said to have nearly 60 percent of agencies submitting contracts only six weeks after the launch of the site is a good sign.

"My understanding is that all agencies are moving to comply," said Terry Mutchler, executive director of Pennsylvania's new Office of Open Records.

"It is incumbent for public bodies to comply with this (law)," Mutchler said.

Agencies that have not submitted contracts might have not done so because that bureau might not have executed a deal on or after July 1, Kupchinsky said.

Melewsky said she believes state agencies will submit their contracts to be posted to the treasury department's Web site.

"There is no way to know for sure if all the contracts are up there," she said. "I think there has to be some level of trust in the government. I hope it won't be an issue. I think the state agencies will follow suit. I don't predict a problem," Melewsky said.

Houser said it's in the best interest of the state for the agencies to comply.

"We are in a nature of open records here in Pennsylvania," Houser said. "If agencies are not going to comply with this, shame on them."

AT A GLANCE

• The database: On July 22, the Pennsylvania Treasury Department launched a free online database of state contracts that allows site visitors to review the documents that had been previously available through formal requests.
• The contracts: According to Pennsylvania's updated Right to Know Law, state agencies have 10 days to file their contracts with treasury department. The department then posts the information to its site. Contracts uploaded to the treasury department's site are worth more than $5,000 and have been executed on or after July 1. So far, state agencies have posted more than 4,600 contracts to the site.
• What we found: The Right to Know Law doesn't include a provision to penalize an agency for not filing a contract with the treasury department to be posted online.
• On the Web: To use the database, go to http://contracts.patreasury.org/search.aspx. Once at the site, you can search by agency, contracting party, date or the amount of the contract.