Opinion: Let's celebrate transparent government
July 02, 2009
OPINION
Erie Times-News Editorial
Former Superior Court Judge Michael A. Joyce will get to keep his pension despite his insurance-fraud conviction.
Denice Manus had been fired as an Erie School District guidance counselor before running unsuccessfully for the Erie School Board in the May primary.
Some state legislators get far more taxpayer money than their colleagues to hand out in grants to various groups, however worthy.
What do these situations have in common? The information came to the public because of requests to access Right-to-Know records.
Transparency in government is worth celebrating as we prepare to mark our country's birth Saturday.
It's been just six months since Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law took effect, giving it a major overhaul for the first time in 52 years. It was widely considered to be among the nation's weakest laws.
It will take some time to assess the new law's effectiveness, but Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, told us this week that 500 appeals for record access have been filed with the state's newly created Open Records Office since Jan. 1. "In the past, that's 500 individuals who would have had to go to court, incurring that time and expense, to pursue a record," Melewsky said.
The law's biggest effect -- in philosophy -- was immediate. In most cases, no longer is it an individual's onus to make the case for the release of public information -- whether it be the minutes of a meeting or most any public record. Now it's the government's responsibility to show why such a record shouldn't be released or released in a timely manner.
That's a huge, long-awaited change.
We've noticed over the years that the best governments and school districts are those with active participation from its residents or taxpayers. Not only does that not happen by accident, the positive interaction between government and the people it serves, as well as those who end up being elected, seems to build on itself in healthy communities.
Transparency, intrinsic to the practice of good government, runs through it all.
We realize some government officials can get a bad name unfairly by the nature of governance and the need to levy taxes, make laws and settle disputes. However, all of us should have no tolerance for elected officials or bureaucratic offices that try to do the public's business in secret, or not fully in the light.
That's why the new Right-to-Know Law is so welcome. As Barry Kauffman, director of Pennsylvania Common Cause, said, "In too many cases, employees and officials of government agencies had an attitude that they own the government records instead of just being the caretakers of the government records." The culture of governance has changed.
Now there's good reason for celebrating.
Erie Times-News Editorial
Former Superior Court Judge Michael A. Joyce will get to keep his pension despite his insurance-fraud conviction.
Denice Manus had been fired as an Erie School District guidance counselor before running unsuccessfully for the Erie School Board in the May primary.
Some state legislators get far more taxpayer money than their colleagues to hand out in grants to various groups, however worthy.
What do these situations have in common? The information came to the public because of requests to access Right-to-Know records.
Transparency in government is worth celebrating as we prepare to mark our country's birth Saturday.
It's been just six months since Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law took effect, giving it a major overhaul for the first time in 52 years. It was widely considered to be among the nation's weakest laws.
It will take some time to assess the new law's effectiveness, but Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, told us this week that 500 appeals for record access have been filed with the state's newly created Open Records Office since Jan. 1. "In the past, that's 500 individuals who would have had to go to court, incurring that time and expense, to pursue a record," Melewsky said.
The law's biggest effect -- in philosophy -- was immediate. In most cases, no longer is it an individual's onus to make the case for the release of public information -- whether it be the minutes of a meeting or most any public record. Now it's the government's responsibility to show why such a record shouldn't be released or released in a timely manner.
That's a huge, long-awaited change.
We've noticed over the years that the best governments and school districts are those with active participation from its residents or taxpayers. Not only does that not happen by accident, the positive interaction between government and the people it serves, as well as those who end up being elected, seems to build on itself in healthy communities.
Transparency, intrinsic to the practice of good government, runs through it all.
We realize some government officials can get a bad name unfairly by the nature of governance and the need to levy taxes, make laws and settle disputes. However, all of us should have no tolerance for elected officials or bureaucratic offices that try to do the public's business in secret, or not fully in the light.
That's why the new Right-to-Know Law is so welcome. As Barry Kauffman, director of Pennsylvania Common Cause, said, "In too many cases, employees and officials of government agencies had an attitude that they own the government records instead of just being the caretakers of the government records." The culture of governance has changed.
Now there's good reason for celebrating.
