COMMENTARY
The public has the right to know. Now.
Feb. 8, 2008
By KIM de BOURBON
Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition
The concept is this: Government belongs to the people, so the government's records also belong to the people.
That simple premise is the cornerstone of a new "Right to Know" law that Harrisburg has been writing and rewriting for more than a year. Four open records bills were introduced early last year. Months of study and debate have gone by, and revisions upon revisions have been made.
On Jan. 30, the Senate unanimously passed the legislation that resulted from all that work and compromise. Known as Senate Bill 1, it was the first of the new open records bills to be offered, and it was introduced by Sen. Dominic Pileggi last March.
That bill — originating in the Senate but amended to include provisions from the House — may now be stuck. On Wednesday the House voted to delay a decision after four hours of last-minute anxiety from members who seem to have been listening to special-interest constituents rather than studying the actual language, intent, and overall good of the proposed legislation.
In case you haven't been following the debate: Those who believe in having an open government have for years decried Pennsylvania's "Right to Know" law as one of the weakest in the country. It's a law you probably haven't given much thought to, unless you've wanted to see a police accident report or tried to get copies of government agency policies, bridge safety reports, emergency disaster plans, or other records.
Our existing law, quite basically, has a very narrow definition of what the public is entitled to see, and it has been way too easy for government officials to just say "no" when citizens ask to see what they've been up to. The new law would declare — right up front — that all state and local government records (with a good-size list of common-sense exemptions) are open for the public to see and copy.
Quite a change.
But some members of the House aren't happy with the bill as it stands, and say it needs fixing.
They've heard from some folks who worry the new openness might threaten personal privacy and security. These concerns are unfounded. The law specifically exempts from public release any information that, if disclosed, could lead to someone's physical harm or information that would violate a person's privacy. That includes information concerning domestic violence victims, social service recipients, medical benefit recipients or those involved in law enforcement investigations.
Lawmakers also have heard from real estate agents. The new law contains a provision that would prohibit commercial use of "complex" public databases, and the real estate industry believes this might prevent them from purchasing and using property records for their listings, as they have long done. Open government advocates aren't particularly satisfied with this "complex data sets" provision either. Nor are some reformers particularly happy with provisions that keep secret coroner's records and 911 emergency dispatch records.
Simply put, no one group will think this law is perfect. It is a compromise among many groups that strives to find the right balance between openness in government and protection of privacy and security. If no one is 100 percent satisfied with new legislation, that's a good sign that effective compromise has been reached.
And it comes down to this: Work began on this legislation more than a year ago. The bill now before the House is the result of months of discussion and negotiations. The wording of some provisions may need to be clarified before the law goes into effect next January. Other issues won't arise until they are worked out in practice. That's inevitable. But we've got to start somewhere.
It's time to get the law in place and start preparing to use it. There's time to make corrections after it is signed into law. There's also a whole new state office to put in place and a lot of training to be done, so let's get on with it.
The new law would give Pennsylvanians their long-overdue rights to know what their state and local governments are doing, and we support it.
The Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping citizens obtain public information from their local and state governments. Its Web site offers information and resources about the state"s Right to Know Law and Sunshine Act, as well as an interactive forum where members can post questions about government access.