It's a deal on open records
Feb. 12, 2008
By CHARLES THOMPSON
Of The Patriot-News
HARRISBURG — State House and Senate leaders agreed late Monday on a final version of a new open-records bill that proponents said would strengthen one of the weakest such laws in the nation.
Shortly after the compromise was announced on a series of mostly technical changes, the bill cruised to quick passage on a 199-0 vote in the House of Representatives. The Senate is expected to follow suit today, clearing the way for Gov. Ed Rendell to sign it.
Rendell press secretary Chuck Ardo did not commit the governor, although Rendell has advocated for a more robust Right-to-Know Law and the legislation appears headed for a veto-proof majority.
"He'll certainly have to see what it is they send him," Ardo said Monday night.
Supporters said the bill would require government officials to honor citizen requests for information as a matter of course, instead of making inquirers feel they have to ask permission. If a request is denied, they added, the officials will have to explain why.
Still, some stopped short of endorsing the final version.
Deb Musselman, director of government relations for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, said PNA needs to study the final changes, especially one that would exempt nearly all public releases of a juvenile's name, address or date of birth.
House members called for that change as a protection against pedophiles or others with criminal intent.
The records bill would be the first government reform proposal to reach Rendell in a legislative session that began last year with reform as a watchword.
The agreement followed two weeks during which what once looked like an easy run to passage bogged down in partisan politics, House-Senate rivalries and 11th-hour lobbying. At one point, House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese, D-Greene, accused Republicans of blocking action simply to keep his party from "putting any points on the board."
Lawmakers on both sides hammered out final differences Monday on issues such as transcripts of 911 calls or privacy rights of domestic-violence victims seeking to stay out of reach of their abusers.
The key change is a flip in the presumption that records are closed unless otherwise specified. The bill states that records of all state or local agencies are presumed public unless protected by a specific exception or other privilege.
In another first for Pennsylvania, it sets out uniform provisions through which agencies must handle requests, and would create an independent state office to train local officials and handle appeals.
In addition, the Legislature would be subject to the open-records law for the first time, as are community colleges. Penn State, Pitt, Lincoln and Temple universities would have to disclose the salaries of top officials.
The law would not open all records. Still off limits would be most personal and medical records, police investigative files, autopsy reports and internal deliberations designed to cover things such as communications between a lawmaker and a constituent or lobbyist.
The Legislature would come under a limited presumption of openness, although the bill does specify different types of records that must be open, including financial records, attendance records and roll call votes, as well as chamber rules and staff manuals.
In one of the last compromises, recordings or transcripts of calls to emergency dispatch centers were exempted from the requirements, although counties would be free to release them at their discretion. County 911 time-response logs, however, would be public.
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