HUNTINGDON - A citizens group contends that the Huntingdon Area School District has violated the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act over the proposed closing of two elementary schools. Read More…

Rush Township is appealing a ruling by the state's Office of Open Records that it must allow a former supervisor to review financial records from early 2007. Marion J. Lazur, a township resident who served on the board of supervisors from 2002 to 2007, turned to the Right to Know Law after the township refused to turn over bills and invoices from January, February and March 2007. Read More…

Montgomery County officials have been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury investigating accusations that two commissioners violated the state Sunshine Act, according to anonymous sources. The District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on grand jury involvement in the case or whether prosecutors were looking into pay-to-play allegations that have dogged Republican Commissioner Chairman James R. Matthews for nearly a year. Read More…

HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records (OOR) would have to perform a legal analysis on the Central Pennsylvania Workforce Development Corp. (CPWDC) before determining whether it is subject to the Right to Know law, the executive director of OOR said Tuesday. However, added Terry Mutchler, "all signals" point to the organization being a public entity. Commissioners in Northumberland and Snyder counties are seeking budgetary information from the CPWDC board, which voted last month to consolidate the Shamokin and Selinsgrove CareerLinks into one centralized location in Sunbury.
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Reporter Dylan Purcell, on behalf of the Philadelphia Inquirer, asked the Pennsylvania Office of Administration ("OA") to provide him with a list state employees and salaries. The OA granted the request, but only provided Purcell with the employees' years of birth, rather than a full birth date including the day and month born. Purcell appealed to the Office of Open Records ("OOR"), arguing that the dates of birth of state employees are public records. The OOR agreed with Purcell, and issued a final determination ordering the OA to provide Purcell with the state employees' full dates of birth. Read More…

The Gettysburg Times recently launched a new page on its website which allows readers to view the complete budgets of government bodies. Read More…

Gov. Ed Rendell should veto legislation that allows Pennsylvania’s coroners to deny the public and the media access to records. Read More…

We find it interesting -- and somewhat darkly humorous -- that Pennsylvania's coroners seem a bit confused as to the nature of their mandate. Given their endless talk of safeguarding the feelings of bereaved families, it's almost like they wanted to be psychologists, instead of doctors, before settling for the most influential medical career that doesn't require a medical degree or professional standards of conduct. Read More…

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell signed 22 bills into law Tuesday, but left at least one critical piece of legislation untouched for more review — a bill that essentially turns coroners’ reports into state secrets, allowing the release only of minimal information, such as names and causes of death. Read More…

Pennsylvania is on the verge of taking a big step backward when it comes to transparency and openness. On the last day of its lame-duck session, the General Assembly voted to approve changes to the County Code that would eliminate access to virtually all information produced by coroners. Read More…

Just before legislators ended their lame-duck session, they slammed the door on public access to records of a key law enforcement officer: Pennsylvania's county coroners. Gov. Ed Rendell needs to pull out his veto pen to keep the change from becoming law. Read More…

The Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) is requesting home addresses of public school employees be kept private under Right-to-Know law, but Stop Teacher Strikes President Simon Campbell and the state Office of Open Records argue there is no such protection. Read More…

On November 16, 2010, a three-judge panel of the Commonwealth Court held that the Right-to-Know Law (RTKL) does not provide immediate access to the name of a deceased and the manner of death. Hearst Television, Inc. et al. v. Norris et al., 95 C.D. 2010. Read More…

On November 1, 2010, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reinstated the preliminary injunction prohibiting the release of public school employees home addresses while the appeal is pending. What does that mean to you? At some point, the Pa. Supreme Court will enter a final order on the appeal. It remains to be seen if the court will address only the procedural issue raised by the Commonwealth Court or address the merits of the case as well. Read More…

It seems like such a small thing. But if Pennsylvania's revised Right-to-Know Law is to represent public access to public records, there need to be rulings such as the one made last week.
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On November 4, 2010, the Commonwealth Court in its decision, State Employees' Retirement System v. Office of Open Records, No. 152 C.D. 2010, by Senior Judge Flaherty, denied a claim by SERS for labor charges in complying with a Right-to-Know request as a cost "necessarily incurred" under 65 P.S. § 67.1307(g). Read More…

The owner of a Philadelphia historical walking tour company has been sued by the offices of the Pennsylvania governor and Philadelphia mayor in attempts to block the release of records requested under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law. Read More…

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. Read More…

James Powers, former director of the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security, destroyed the original intelligence reports he received from the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response. That may have violated multiple provisions of the state’s record retention policy. Read More…

HARRISBURG — Government agencies cannot charge people seeking public records for the time agency employees spend complying with requests made under Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law in certain cases, a state Commonwealth Court panel ruled Thursday. Read More…

One of the most fiercely contested issues arising after the 2008 revision of Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law is whether home addresses of public employees are public records. Read More…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ― The Philadelphia Daily News won a court decision Friday in its quest to obtain copies of police grievance arbitration awards from the city. A Commonwealth Court panel reversed a Philadelphia judge's injunction that has prevented city officials from turning over the records to reporter Wendy Ruderman. The judges said the union did not show a clear right to relief and a reasonable likelihood it would prevail on the merits.
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Is an individual's home address a public record, and subject to the state's Right to Know Law, if that person is a public employee? That is the key question in a debate over personal privacy versus the public's right to know, in an age dominated by the Internet. Read More…

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, prime sponsor of the 2008 Right to Know Law, has responded to concerns raised by newspapers and others regarding Senate Bill 1469. That bill, which passed the Senate with no negative votes this month, would have amended the Right to Know Law to restrict access to government contractor records, charge the public for viewing a public record, and expand access to 911 time response logs and drafts considered at public meetings, among other things. Senator Pileggi intends to introduce a new bill in January and promises a public, methodical approach to amending the Law. Read More…

HARRISBURG -- Jennifer Hara, a mother of four who drives a school bus, worries about bills pending before the General Assembly that would make it harder to access government records at a time when many Pennsylvanians are challenging gas drilling. "Any degradation of the Right to Know laws would hurt efforts to get more information on Marcellus shale," said Hara of Enola, during a recent gathering about property owners' rights on the huge natural gas formation in Pennsylvania.

A Senate-passed bill would allow governments to charge people for reviewing records, even if they do not request copies. The Senate bill allows local governments to charge up to half of the 25-cents per page copying fee for records people request but do not copy.
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When the House went into its election recess Wednesday (Oct. 6), it left a number of bills that PNA opposes in committee. Since the passage of Act 3, the Right to Know Law, numerous bills have been introduced to carve out more exceptions from the presumption of access in both chambers, and although none have passed the House, three proposals passed the Senate – all without debate, and with less than a handful of negative votes among them. Read More…

LEETSDALE — It took about two weeks, but two Leetsdale residents have received documents they formally requested from the borough, despite initial reluctance from a councilman to providing the information. Read More…

Legislators in Harrisburg should stop an attempt to weaken the state's new right-to-know law. The Senate passed a bill unanimously last week that would water down several provisions of the two-year-old law, which granted greater public access to government records Read More…

Here we go again: bills to amend the 2008 Right to Know Law are again on the move in our state capitol, just a few weeks before the November election, and after a one-year lull in any work on open records legislation. In the Senate, the new law's sponsor, Sen. Pileggi, is now sponsoring Senate Bill 1469, a bill that would exempt volunteer fire and rescue companies, significantly cut back on the records available from government contractors, prevent the public from viewing bills from sewer and other public authorities, and charge a member of the public just to look at a public record. Just introduced on September 20, it moved quickly, and is scheduled for a Senate vote today. Read More…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A bill approved Wednesday by the state Senate would make numerous changes to the Right-to-Know Law, including one that would allow a local agency to charge a per-page fee to someone reviewing a public record. The Senate voted unanimously without debate to send the 19-page bill to the House.
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Pennsylvania emerged from the dark ages of public disclosure two years ago when the Legislature finally passed an open-records law that lifted the veil of secrecy from most local governments. Last week, in an opinion that turns on its head the notion of public accountability by public officials, the Commonwealth Court draped that veil of secrecy back over the state police and, by extension, all police agencies in Pennsylvania. Read More…

The teachers union for the Erie School District has again lost a test case over the public release of information on the discipline of educators. The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, in a 3-0 decision, has upheld a ruling against the Erie Education Association over a fired guidance counselor, Denice Manus, who unsuccessfully ran for Erie School Board in the May 2009 primary. Read More…

The Pennsbury School District will begin, as early as this week, to post the salaries and benefits information for each of its 1,540 employees on the school system's website, officials said. The district's school board, in a 5-4 split vote Thursday night, agreed to do the posting at www.pennsbury.k12.pa.us based on the requirements of the state's 2009 Right to Know Law. Read More…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania appeals court on Friday threw out a lawsuit filed by the state's largest teachers' union that sought to prevent public disclosure of public school employees' home addresses. Commonwealth Court ruled against the Pennsylvania State Education Association, which sued the state Office of Open Records to keep it from ordering the release of the addresses under the state's Right-to-Know Law. Read More…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Proposed revisions to Pennsylvania's 2-year-old Right-to-Know Law - with provisions that would expand access to some government records and restrict it for others - passed a legislative committee unanimously Wednesday and could get a full Senate vote next week. Read More…

Governments in Pennsylvania have been forced to operate in a more-open manner since the start of last year because an updated Right-to-Know Law forces them to make public more documents about how they spend public money and how they act on the public's behalf. It was only a matter of time, though, before lawmakers sought to amend the law, as governments complained that being forced to be so open is such a strain. Read More…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Incident reports filed by Pennsylvania state troopers do not have to be released to the public, Commonwealth Court ruled Thursday in a reversal of the state open records office. The 6-1 majority ruling said the forms are covered by an exception to the Right-to-Know Law that allows agencies to withhold criminal investigative records.
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"The Need for Transparency in Government and Knowing Your Rights," a seminar on Pennsylvania's new right-to-know law, will be presented at 6 p.m. Sept. 23 at the Shickshinny firehouse. Read More…

It has been five months since an Allegheny County judge ordered the Pittsburgh Police Bureau to turn over arrest reports from the G-20 Summit to the Citizen Police Review Board. Since then, the city first provided reports that were redacted so heavily the board found them to be useless and then challenged the court's order by refusing to provide the information. Read More…

The management company for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees has appealed to the state Supreme Court a ruling that ordered it to make public its records on concessions. SWB Yankees LLC wants the state's highest court to overturn a Commonwealth Court ruling that found the Right to Know Law applies to a company contracted to manage the publicly owned baseball team. Read More…

A decision by the Commonwealth Court to make e-mails of employees of court offices exempt from the Right to Know Law is broad in the eyes of open records experts and the state Office of Open Records - but they say it shouldn't stop people from making requests. Read More…

The Monessen School District must provide the name of a teacher fired in June by Sept. 17, an appeals officer has ruled. Read More…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania courts' broad exemption from the Right-to-Know Law shields judicial records from public scrutiny even when they are in the hands of agencies that are subject to the law, a three-judge panel of the state Commonwealth Court has ruled. Read More…

In a precedent-setting ruling handed down Wednesday by Commonwealth Court, records of ancillary offices to the state's court system have been found exempt from the 2009 Right to Know Law. Addressing whether The Times-Tribune and others were entitled to Lackawanna County records for its Department of Domestic Relations, the court ruled the county and state Office of Open Records were permanently barred from making the information public. Read More…

Days after a Daily News columnist wrote about the high salaries of School District Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman and several of her top deputies - with salaries higher than those of Mayor Nutter and Gov. Rendell - Ackerman moved to limit the number of district employees able to access the district's payroll system. Read More…

Allentown's portion of South Mountain has trees, plenty of them -- more than 1,000 yellow poplars and black oaks, and even a few black cherry. While this may not be a surprise, the administration of Mayor Ed Pawlowski has filed a petition in court to keep a tree inventory and other details about South Mountain out of the public domain. Read More…

The Monessen School District has responded to an appeal filed by The Valley Independent under the state's Right-to-Know Law. In its response, the district gave reasons why it believes the request by the newspaper to get the name of a fired Monessen teacher should not be heard. Read More…

Most public officials in 2010 would blush at acknowledging that staff members do not know how to use e-mail or electronically transfer data. But not Wyoming County Recorder of Deeds Dennis Montross. He thinks his staff's alleged technological ignorance is a valid excuse to maintain the secrecy of public records. Read More…

A state appeals court has ruled against the SWB Yankees LLC - the management group for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees and PNC Field - in its attempt to block The Times-Tribune from obtaining the paperwork concerning how bids were awarded at the Lackawanna County Multi-Purpose Stadium in Moosic.
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A Pennsylvania state university and its nonprofit fundraising foundation have asked the state’s high court to hear an appeal in a case over whether the foundation, which is staffed by public employees, is subject to state public records laws. Read More…

Pennsylvania's Office of Open Records has ordered the release of documents detailing the moonlighting done by state troopers to the Tribune-Review and the Associated Press. Read More…

HARRISBURG (AP) — The Pennsylvania State Police must release most of its records about work that its employees perform while they are off-duty, the state Office of Open Records has ruled. The office concluded in Wednesday's decision that the state police erred in withholding information about employee moonlighting in response to a right-to-know request filed in April by The Associated Press. Read More…

East Stroudsburg University and its foundation have asked the state's highest court to reverse an appellate court ruling that would force the foundation to turn over records to the Pocono Record. In the latest turn in an ongoing legal battle, ESU and the private ESU Foundation, which raises money for the university, filed an appeal in the Middle District of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, arguing that a unanimous decision of a full panel of judges of the Commonwealth Court in May should not be allowed to stand because it is overbroad and intrusive. Read More…

This newspaper applauded state Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-9, of Chester, when he advanced the cause of open government by sponsoring the Open Records Act of 2009, but the struggle for public access continues. Commonwealth Court issued decisions this month interpreting the amended Right to Know Law.
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When the Monessen School Board voted last week to fire a teacher identified only by an employee number, it violated the state's open meetings law, according to an attorney for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. Read More…

Penn State University said today it plans to submit a revised Right-to-Know report to the state on Friday that will include salaries of two employees left off of the university's initial filing last month. Read More…

A landmark decision by the Commonwealth Court that helps define the term "governmental function" in the Right to Know Law could change the way local governments and their vendors do business. It could also impact the outcome of three cases involving vendor records related to Lackawanna County government. Read More…

Last week was a significant one for access issues, with the Commonwealth Court issuing four decisions interpreting the amended Right to Know Law. Read More…

Donor records relating to scholarships and a signature East Stroudsburg University building must be made available to the Pocono Record, a state court ruled Monday in the most recent turn in a 15-month-long legal battle. In a precedent-setting decision, the Commonwealth Court ruled 7-0 to uphold the substance of a previous ruling by the state's open records agency. Read More…

Pennsylvania may have a new Right to Know Law, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that many bureaucrats and elected officials have no intention of following it. Read More…

Lower Windsor Township changed a policy and will let people see drafts, ordinances and other documents before the supervisors act on them, as long as the information isn't privileged. On Thursday, supervisors unanimously voted for the change, saying they wanted to be open with the public about information. Read More…

Sometimes, a final decision isn't exactly final. That's the case with Pennsylvania's revamped open records law. The law, intended to grant the public greater and easier access to public documents, allows government bodies to appeal decisions — called final determinations — by the state Office of Open Records. And sometimes that results in records remaining closed because petitioners cannot afford to hire lawyers to defend appeals. Read More…

If Wyomissing School Board members are so concerned about informing the public how much it costs the district to gather information under the Pennsylvania Right to Know Act, perhaps they should include themselves on the list of who requested information, what information was sought, the time it took to fulfill the requests and how much that cost the district. Read More…

The Wyomissing School District has begun to publish the names of people who request information from the district under the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law. Read More…

Back in 2008, when the Pennsylvania Legislature was considering changes to strengthen Pennsylvania's open records law, we offered the opinion that a stronger law would be of far more benefit to ordinary Pennsylvanians than it would be to newspapers, although newspapers were among the strongest supporters of the new law. Read More…

A naming-rights agreement for the county-owned baseball stadium is public record and must be turned over to The Times-Tribune, the state Office of Open Records has ruled. Read More…

For more than 50 years, Pennsylvania's public agencies could deny residents access to public records without explaining why residents couldn't have access. The state's new Right to Know law, enacted Jan. 1, 2009, puts the burden on agencies to prove why records are exempt.

At a Tuesday night forum at Northampton Community College's Tannersville campus, the public got a better sense of this new law. The forum was sponsored by the Pocono Record and NCC. Read More…

Four panelists gave insight on the first year of the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law during a symposium in the HUB Ohio room at 7 p.m. March 31. The event came after Sunshine Week, which celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Right to Know Law, which is a type of Sunshine law, meant to give open access to public documents.
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It’s a pretty good law. But having a good law and having a universally good “open government” attitude across the state are two different things. Pennsylvania’s new “Right to Know Law” took effect Jan. 1, 2009, more than a year ago. Has it been successful? It depends whom you ask and how you measure success when it comes to citizens being able to keep track of what their government is doing.
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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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It's been more than a year since Pennsylvania enacted its new Right-to-Know law, but experts say it's going to be years before it gets perfected. Case law and trial-and-error still are taking place across the state when citizens ask for — and expect to receive — government records they believe to be accessible to the public. While officials familiar with the law admit there is room to improve it, everyone agrees on one thing — Pennsylvania is more open than it was before the Right-to-Know changes.
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Just over a year old, Pennsylvania's Right to Know Law remains a work in progress. That fact is clearly evident through a court case brought by our colleagues at WGAL-TV. In what should be a clear-cut situation, the television station has been forced to go to the Commonwealth Court in an effort to determine not if a record is public - on that point everyone agrees - but when it should be released.
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In light of recent accusations about undue political influence in Montgomery County government, a former county official has asked the Board of Elections for details about the commissioners’ campaign finance spending over the past two years. Read More…

Montgomery County has stated it will require another month to provide the county’s professional services contracts and related documents requested earlier this month by The Times Herald. Read More…

A new legal battle could be brewing over a Shippensburg University student's death that already has prompted a court duel over the state's Right to Know Law. Read More…

The management group for the Lackawanna County-owned Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees argues a judge erred in a case that will decide whether concessionaire bids for the baseball team and stadium are public records. Read More…

Lackawanna County must obtain and provide to The Times-Tribune any receipts and invoices related to the cost of medical care at Lackawanna County Prison between November 2004 and November 2009, the state Office of Open Records has ruled. Read More…

Ben Vonderheide spends a lot of time at the Lancaster County Courthouse, pursuing fathers' rights and inconveniencing local officials in the process. As such, Vonderheide said, he's been tossed out of many a county office and courtroom. But his ejection from one courtroom this fall prompted him to request copies of the surveillance tapes for his records. The county refused to provide the tapes, saying it would constitute a security breach. The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records disagreed. In a Christmas Eve ruling, appeals officer Lucinda Glinn ordered the county to turn them over to Vonderheide. Read More…