Revised Right to Know Act still in need of changes

In 2007, a lawsuit was filed to find out how much Joe Paterno made from Penn State to coach the Nittany Lions. Today that information is an open public record.

In 2006, WTAE sued PennDOT to release its list of dangerous roads and intersections and lost. Today, that list is now available for public scrutiny.

In the past, businesses being paid by the state or local municipalities could refuse to give any information requested about their contracts. Today, they have to comply with requests from the public or media.

On Jan. 1, 2009, Pennsylvania replaced its old Right To Know Act, which was known as one of the worst in the country, with one that expanded on the information available to citizens and journalists alike. While better, it still has over 30 exemptions. That is too many.

The new law, which replaces legislation written in 1957, was praised recently by the Citizen Media Law project on their Web site, www.citmedialaw.org. The Web site noted that the Better Government Association ranked the 1957 legislation's open record law 48 out of 50 for quality of public access.

"Although the law doesn't break any new ground for government access in general, the new Right-To-Know law will make the existing opaque regime more transparent. The law finally recognizes that agencies and officials are caretakers, and that government records belong to the public," according to Citizen Media Law's Web site.

The new law has many changes that will make information from government agencies and companies doing business with the government easier to obtain.

The biggest change in the new law, according to the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition in Harrisburg, is that government agencies now have the burden of proof to establish why a record should not be released. Before this new law was enacted, citizens requesting a record had the responsibility of establishing why a record should be made public.

All financial records from state courts, legislative records from the General Assembly and some legislative committees and commissions are now readily available through the new open record law.

This is a step in the right direction. While journalists over the course of a career may become increasingly skilled at navigating government agencies, this levels the playing field for the public and new journalists to access key information and brings a new level of transparency to our government.

Another key point to the legislation is the ease of making a request. Requests can now be made by mail, fax, e-mail or in person. A standard form that all Pennsylvania government agencies must accept is available at www.openrecords.state.pa.us. The law also allows for anonymous requests.

There are a few significant requirements agencies must now follow when dealing with requests for information.

Agencies cannot make someone requesting information explain why they want it. The new law prohibits this by stating that no public office can require anyone "to disclose the purpose or motive in requesting access to records." This is important because it reduces the intimidation from government agencies that may not want to release documents that may cast the agency in a bad light.

The law also states that no public body can limit the number of requests that a citizen can make. Having this written into the law prevents agencies from having the power to stop a citizen from following up with more document requests that a single citizen may realize he needs after receiving others.

Also, all agencies now have up to five business days to respond to a request and establish a day for the records to be received by the citizen requesting the documents. There is a provision that allows for up to 30 days if a request will take substantial time to prepare, but the contacted agency must still respond within five business days by mail to allow the citizen to know this.

If no response is received by mail, the citizen's request is deemed denied. To file an appeal, written proof of the request must be provided to the Office of Open Records. The Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition recommends that all requests are put in writing, rather than in person, for this reason.

This part of the law is extremely important. It requires that government agencies act quickly and in a good faith effort to handle all requests for information. If the agency does deny your request, or appeal, they must let you know why and in a timely manner. The appeal process for denied records has also been streamlined.

Another part of the law states that the fees charged for the reproduction of documents must be reasonable. This prevents an agency from charging fees, like they were able to under the previous law that would make accessing requested documents cost prohibitive. The law states "except as otherwise provided by statute, no other fees may be imposed unless the agency necessarily incurs costs for complying with the request, and such fees must be reasonable. No fee may be imposed for an agency's review of a record to determine whether the record is a public record, legislative record or financial record subject to access in accordance with this act," according to the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition's Web site.

There are exceptions to what the law deems a document that must be made available to the public. These include 911 call recordings, autopsy records and documents that identify minors' names, and social service or welfare recipients' names. Issues dealing with national security information are also not covered by the new law. Editorial boards across the state, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, have written numerous editorials about why this information should be available.

Laws like this new Open Records Law are not perfect, but they are moving in the right direction. To have a functioning democracy, the public must be informed about what the government is doing on its behalf. Therefore, citizens and journalists deserve access to these government documents, and they should be easily available. And most of the 30 exemptions should be lifted.