Opinion: New state rules helping to open up records
December 20, 2009 |
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
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Opinion: Shut down these records!
December 17, 2009 |
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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Opinion: Shut down these records!
December 17, 2009 |
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. Read
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Opinion: Softwear snafu delays public Web postings
December 13, 2009 |
HARRISBURG - An effort to post a list of 66
Senate contracts and leases on an open-records
Web site has run into lengthy delays. Last
August, Senate officials said they hoped to have
the taxpayer-funded contracts accessible on the
state Treasury contracts Web site within a matter
of days. These contracts fall under posting
requirements in the state open records law which
took effect earlier this year. That remains an
elusive goal at year's end. Read
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Opinion: Right to Know and the constitutional right to privacy
September 23, 2009 |
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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PNA Legal Hotline: RTK Law governs access to draft minutes, tape recordings
September 17, 2009 |
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
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Opinion: Pre-registration for public comment at meetings unreasonable
September 11, 2009 |
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 |
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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Lackawanna Court upholds Office of Open Records decision
September 10, 2009 |
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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Opinion: Update on public notice, open records bills
September 03, 2009 |
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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Opinion: Court enjoins release of school employees' home addresses
July 29, 2009 |
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.
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