The relatively new Gaming Control Board is all too prone to the same old Harrisburg business-as-usual practices that make Pennsylvania the "State of Corruption." The board violated the state's Sunshine Act 19 times while approving 23 professional services contracts, worth $7 million-plus, without public votes from 2006-09, according to a new state audit. Read More…

Auditor General Jack Wagner is taking on charter school funding, the gaming control board contracting and the governor’s bond deals. In doing so he has managed to give much needed specifics to the broader conversation in our state about how we spend public funds and how some agencies may choose to do business. Read More…

State Auditor General Jack Wagner on Wednesday accused the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board of violating state law by allowing millions of dollars in contracts to be executed without approving them at public meetings, although the board contended it was not required to do so. "We think the law is pretty darn clear," Wagner told reporters in a news conference to release an audit of the six-year-old agency responsible for licensing and regulating the state's casino industry. Read More…

Even as many politicians in Harrisburg attempt to turn back the clock by limiting the public's hard-won access to public records, Lackawanna County Recorder of Deeds Evie Rafalko McNulty has exactly the right idea.
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TEXAS TWP. - Township residents now have an all-day ray of transparency with the launch of a citizens' website Monday that will publish township documents and meeting minutes and continually track local issues online. Read More…

Pennsylvania, with its woefully corrupt state Legislature and untold units of local government that also are no strangers to corruption, needs an effective Sunshine Law more so than most other states. Read More…

The "good old boys (and girls)" in Harrisburg are covering each other's butts again. We aren't supposed to notice, because a House-passed bill imposes higher fines for violating the open-meetings "Sunshine Act." That's all we are supposed to notice: Higher fines. But the House, which is in bed with school directors and teacher unions, tacked on a provision allowing secretive closed meetings for "safety and security" reasons.
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The devil is in the details and, if you're the pessimistic type, you can find Lucifer's fingerprints all over a small item in legislation passed by the state House five days ago. Read More…

Today marks the beginning of Sunshine Week, a celebration of open government — and an exhortation to demand it ceaselessly. Open government is a core principle of our American form of democracy. Government employees — both elected officials and non-elected workers — are directly accountable to the people. In a citizens' government, citizens and the press are the watchdogs, making sure officials remain accountable to the people. Keeping access open to officials and to public documents is essential if citizens are to maintain their freedom.
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HARRISBURG - A new Pennsylvania State Police policy requires troopers to withhold names and other information about victims and witnesses when they issue citations for certain minor crimes - drawing criticism from open-government advocates and raising concern among judges and defense lawyers. Read More…

By Tammy Compton
Wayne Independent

TEXAS TOWNSHIP — A Texas Township Citizens’ Website will be coming soon.

A month after Texas Township supervisors declined to pursue a township website, a group of local residents say they’ll host their own.

In response, supervisors say they’ll be checking with the township solicitor to ensure that the township won’t be held liable should there be any misinformation online.

Reading from a prepared statement, resident Georgette Pascotto told the supervisors that failing to have a website was “short-sighted and unfair to many residents who can neither attend meetings nor afford copies of the minutes at 25 cents per page.”

Strongly in support of, and saying even the township’s planning commission advised proceeding with the “online resource,” Pascotto said they’d use their own finances to “establish a township website containing important items such as (approved) minutes, ordinances, names of officials, telephone numbers, meeting dates and time.”

Resident John Bartron said, “I think it’s fine if Georgette has a group or somebody that wants to put it on the net, but I think there should be a disclaimer in there, that this is in no way affiliated” with the township or published by the supervisors.

“If somebody makes a misprint putting it on the net ... and they get sued, they’re the ones that should carry the load, not the taxpayers of Texas Township,” Batron added.

Supervisor Don Doney, “While we’re on this subject, we get a magazine every month called The Township News. There’s an article in there this month that states ‘The Right to Know Law.’ There’s a lawsuit now about how the law applies to emails.”

A man in Montgomery County has filed a law suit against the supervisors, Doney said. “When a supervisor sends an email to another supervisor (not on the township’s computer) ... he wants access to all the supervisors’ emails. And it’s in the courts right now. That’s what that grew into down there,” Doney said.

“I’m not talking about emails, I never have been ...I’ve been talking about what is public record. You had people come here and say, ‘Look, I work two jobs, I can’t be here. Look, I have to help my kids with homework.’ You force them into a situation where, unless they’re here ...they can not be informed of what is happening. And I think that is very unfair,” Pascotto said.

“I can only say that we’re operating within the law,” Doney said.

“I know as long as I’ve sat here, and the boys, I don’t know of anything we’ve done that’s illegal. We might have and don’t know it ... I’ve been here a long time and I never seen any shaky stuff going on in this township,”said Chairman Jack McDonald.

“This is not about casting aspersions. This is about the public’s right to know,” Pascotto said.

“I’m 78 years old, I don’t know how we ever survived up here without this change,” McDonald said.

McDonald talked about how things used to be and how everything’s changed.

“Why do we have to change to accommodate everybody else? They moved here, we didn’t move there,” Batron said.

“Do we want to go back to kerosene lanterns?” asked Ed Thomas of Seelyville. “I’m fourth generation here in Texas Township. I didn’t move anywhere ... I’m still here. And I’m in favor of the Internet, and indoor plumbing and electrical service.”

Pascotto said, “Growth is around the world.”