Busy week for Right to Know issues
April 26, 2013 Right to Know Law
PNA Legal Update
Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association
It has been a busy week for Right to Know issues in both appellate decisions and legislative matters.
On Monday, in an unexpected schedule change, the House State Government Committee took up Rep. Kerry Benninghoff’s (R-Centre) Right to Know bill, HB 61, naming state-related institutions such as Penn State as “agencies” under the Right to Know Law.
The bill was originally scheduled for discussion on Wednesday, April 24. On April 22, however, the bill was reported as amended and moved out of committee. It has been placed on the House calendar for May 6, 2013. Several dozen amendments on various topics have already been filed.
Sen. Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware) also filed his long-awaited Right to Know amendment package on Tuesday, according to coverage in The Philadelphia Inquirer. The bill’s actual text became publicly available on Friday.
SB 444, as expected, deals with commercial users, inmates, burdensome requests and government contractor records, among other matters. SB 444 has been referred to the State Government Committee.
For the past two sessions, the PNA has been requesting amendments to the Right to Know Law, including limiting the investigation and deliberative process exemptions, requiring agencies to provide records in the format requested, eliminating procedural barriers to access, and a number of other issues.
Among other things, SB444 would:
1) Allow increased fees for “commercial purposes,” (with a media exemption).
2) Eliminate most access to public records held by government contractors.
3) Expand the definition of “confidential proprietary information,” to include records created by agencies.
4) Modify the definition of “time response log” (a public record), to include:
- Time call was received
b Time of contact or dispatch of appropriate response agency
c Time of agency response
d Time agency arrived on scene
e Time agency became available
f Address of the incident or cross street or nearest mile marker. (**But note that 708(b)(18) now expressly protects the home address of the person who accesses emergency response).
5) Allow agencies to deny requests that are “unduly burdensome,” provided an agency shows good cause. Neither term is defined.
6) Limit inmate access to public records.
7) Require agencies to provide records in the “format” requested, if they exist in that format.
8) Eliminate public access to customer payment records of water, sewer and other municipal authorities.
9) Eliminate public access to tax payment records in the possession of a tax collector.
10) Expand the deliberative process exemption to include records that reflect, “contain or include” pre-decisional deliberations.
11) Provide public access to “safety inspection reports made pursuant to federal or state law.”
12) Exempt public access to the address of a person “accessing” emergency response (see 4, above).
13) Prohibit access to records of volunteer first responder organizations, including fire and ambulance services.
14) Ease some of the procedural requirements on requesters, e.g., expand the list to whom a request may be directed, eliminate the requirement that a requester list all reasons why a record is public on appeal, etc.
15) Expand the time for Office of Open Records responses and appeals.
We will be requesting a meeting as soon as possible with Senator Pileggi to discuss SB 444. The Senate will return next week for session, while the House is in recess until May 6, 2013.
