Opinion: Transparency government's business cost
OPINION
The (Wilkes-Barre) Times-Tribune
Even as the state Legislature ponders serious rollbacks to the state's 2-year-old Right to Know Law, the state Commonwealth Court has rendered a wise decision that should dissuade those who want to restrict public access to public information.
Because of the impending explosion in public pension costs, the State Employees' Retirement System has experienced an increase in public information requests about its finances, business practices and so on.
SERS responded by attempting to charge media organizations, advocacy groups and citizens for the time that agency employees spend compiling the requested records.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Beaver County Times appealed to the state Office of Open Records when SERS attempted to assess them for state employees' time. That office found that SERS may not charge for employees' time spent in compiling public records.
The law allows for "reasonable" per-page charges for copying. In the Post-Gazette case, the Commonwealth Court directed SERS to charge the paper about $30 for copying costs but to eliminate the $77 charge it had imposed for employees' time.
This case is important relative to the mindset among many government agencies relative to public records access. They view it only as a burden when, in a democracy, it should simply be part of the cost of doing business.
Many state lawmakers don't believe so, though. One proposed amendment to the Open Records Law would allow public agencies to charge citizens merely for viewing public records at the agency's office.
Such charges aren't legitimately for the purpose of covering the agency's costs, but to deter public scrutiny of government business.
Custodians of public records should be eager to share data with interested parties, and should not attempt to deter scrutiny through inflated charges.
Lawmakers should drop proposed amendments to the Open Records Law that would diminish easy access.
The (Wilkes-Barre) Times-Tribune
Even as the state Legislature ponders serious rollbacks to the state's 2-year-old Right to Know Law, the state Commonwealth Court has rendered a wise decision that should dissuade those who want to restrict public access to public information.
Because of the impending explosion in public pension costs, the State Employees' Retirement System has experienced an increase in public information requests about its finances, business practices and so on.
SERS responded by attempting to charge media organizations, advocacy groups and citizens for the time that agency employees spend compiling the requested records.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Beaver County Times appealed to the state Office of Open Records when SERS attempted to assess them for state employees' time. That office found that SERS may not charge for employees' time spent in compiling public records.
The law allows for "reasonable" per-page charges for copying. In the Post-Gazette case, the Commonwealth Court directed SERS to charge the paper about $30 for copying costs but to eliminate the $77 charge it had imposed for employees' time.
This case is important relative to the mindset among many government agencies relative to public records access. They view it only as a burden when, in a democracy, it should simply be part of the cost of doing business.
Many state lawmakers don't believe so, though. One proposed amendment to the Open Records Law would allow public agencies to charge citizens merely for viewing public records at the agency's office.
Such charges aren't legitimately for the purpose of covering the agency's costs, but to deter public scrutiny of government business.
Custodians of public records should be eager to share data with interested parties, and should not attempt to deter scrutiny through inflated charges.
Lawmakers should drop proposed amendments to the Open Records Law that would diminish easy access.
