Right-to-know audit: Law is a challenge for small municipalities
When small municipalities outsource functions,
their records can be harder to find.
By JEFF FRANTZ
(York) Daily Record/Sunday News
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.
This fall as part of a statewide Associated Press audit of the how governments are responding to changes in Pennsylvanias Right-to-Know law implemented in January the York Daily Record/Sunday News requested public records at municipalities across York County. The municipalities were chosen at random, and the newspaper requested documents according to the APs audit guidelines.
On Oct. 6, a reporter requested the last three state or federal grants Hallam had made. The boroughs secretary/tax collector/Right-to-Know officer, Deborah Dupler, said the borough had hired York engineering firm C.S. Davidson to do its grant work. The firm would have the records, Dupler said, and the reporter would have to view them there.
Because of confusion between the borough and the firm, the reporter wasn't offered an opportunity to view the records for more than a month. And because C.S. Davidson would have charged its normal rate for research work, the request could have cost Hallam $200 had the paper not canceled it upon learning of the fee.
Hallam, with a population of 1,532, receives only a few Right-to-Know requests a year, Dupler said, if that. Most of the time, they can be satisfied in a matter of minutes, but for more complicated things, they would have to look elsewhere for the records, and that can get time-consuming.
Obviously, Hallam Borough cannot afford to do (the engineering work) if we all work part-time, Dupler said.
C.S. Davidson kept the grant applications, Dupler said, because (the state or federal government) could award a second round of grants a year or a year-and-a-half later, so they hang onto that. Sometimes (the firm must) re-file ... or re-work the narrative.
Other municipalities would have had similar trouble.
Jean Greene works five hours a week as the Railroad secretary, treasurer and Right-to-Know officer. She's the borough's only employee.
Railroad, with a population of 300, sub-contracts out almost all of its work, so any public documents related to zoning, building permits or engineering would be somewhere else, she said. No one has requested those records under the new law, she said, but if they did, she would have to direct them to the contractors.
We are even smaller than small, so there is very little going on, which is why we don't have many records here, Greene said.
None of the outsourcing violates the law provided the municipality gives the public access to the records, said Barry Fox, deputy director of Pennsylvanias Office of Open Records.
The fact that it's not within the four walls of the building doesn't mean youre not required to produce it as a public record, Fox said. If it's a private company doing a government function, (the municipality) is obligated to get the records.
The municipality would still have to follow the law's time requirements, Fox said, and a requester could only be charged a standard fee for copies, no matter what the contractor charges the municipality for research.
We've seen cases with some odd document storage, but that's not the responsibility of the requester, Fox said.
By JEFF FRANTZ
(York) Daily Record/Sunday News
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.
This fall as part of a statewide Associated Press audit of the how governments are responding to changes in Pennsylvanias Right-to-Know law implemented in January the York Daily Record/Sunday News requested public records at municipalities across York County. The municipalities were chosen at random, and the newspaper requested documents according to the APs audit guidelines.
On Oct. 6, a reporter requested the last three state or federal grants Hallam had made. The boroughs secretary/tax collector/Right-to-Know officer, Deborah Dupler, said the borough had hired York engineering firm C.S. Davidson to do its grant work. The firm would have the records, Dupler said, and the reporter would have to view them there.
Because of confusion between the borough and the firm, the reporter wasn't offered an opportunity to view the records for more than a month. And because C.S. Davidson would have charged its normal rate for research work, the request could have cost Hallam $200 had the paper not canceled it upon learning of the fee.
Hallam, with a population of 1,532, receives only a few Right-to-Know requests a year, Dupler said, if that. Most of the time, they can be satisfied in a matter of minutes, but for more complicated things, they would have to look elsewhere for the records, and that can get time-consuming.
Obviously, Hallam Borough cannot afford to do (the engineering work) if we all work part-time, Dupler said.
C.S. Davidson kept the grant applications, Dupler said, because (the state or federal government) could award a second round of grants a year or a year-and-a-half later, so they hang onto that. Sometimes (the firm must) re-file ... or re-work the narrative.
Other municipalities would have had similar trouble.
Jean Greene works five hours a week as the Railroad secretary, treasurer and Right-to-Know officer. She's the borough's only employee.
Railroad, with a population of 300, sub-contracts out almost all of its work, so any public documents related to zoning, building permits or engineering would be somewhere else, she said. No one has requested those records under the new law, she said, but if they did, she would have to direct them to the contractors.
We are even smaller than small, so there is very little going on, which is why we don't have many records here, Greene said.
None of the outsourcing violates the law provided the municipality gives the public access to the records, said Barry Fox, deputy director of Pennsylvanias Office of Open Records.
The fact that it's not within the four walls of the building doesn't mean youre not required to produce it as a public record, Fox said. If it's a private company doing a government function, (the municipality) is obligated to get the records.
The municipality would still have to follow the law's time requirements, Fox said, and a requester could only be charged a standard fee for copies, no matter what the contractor charges the municipality for research.
We've seen cases with some odd document storage, but that's not the responsibility of the requester, Fox said.