Opinion: Bulletin! Public records are public's!
OPINION
The (Scranton) Times-Tribune
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.
Over the last several months state lawmakers have attempted to reduce public access to coroners' records, for example, and even to establish fees for merely viewing records in the public offices where they are held.
Meanwhile, Ms. Rafalko McNulty has launched a project to ensure that every record held by her office, as far back as 1878, is available to the public - for free.
"We need to make government, and in particular the records in this office, more accessible to people. The main thing is making it available to the public for free. They are their records," Ms. Rafalko McNulty declared.
Public officials are, indeed, merely the custodians of the public records. Yet far too many of them attempt to restrict them as expressions of their own power, or to charge for access to them as a means of increasing their budgets.
Ms. Rafalko McNulty has solicited proposals for a new computerized record-management system that would provide the free, comprehensive records access that she advocates.
The initiative is a case of a public official recognizing that the law is a merely a baseline defining the minimum that is required of officeholders. There is nothing to prevent those public officials from going beyond those minimum requirements to better serve the public.
Rather than hiding behind the law in order to provide minimum access, Ms. Rafalko McNulty is going beyond it to provide maximum access. It is a truly commendable act of public service.
The (Scranton) Times-Tribune
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.
Over the last several months state lawmakers have attempted to reduce public access to coroners' records, for example, and even to establish fees for merely viewing records in the public offices where they are held.
Meanwhile, Ms. Rafalko McNulty has launched a project to ensure that every record held by her office, as far back as 1878, is available to the public - for free.
"We need to make government, and in particular the records in this office, more accessible to people. The main thing is making it available to the public for free. They are their records," Ms. Rafalko McNulty declared.
Public officials are, indeed, merely the custodians of the public records. Yet far too many of them attempt to restrict them as expressions of their own power, or to charge for access to them as a means of increasing their budgets.
Ms. Rafalko McNulty has solicited proposals for a new computerized record-management system that would provide the free, comprehensive records access that she advocates.
The initiative is a case of a public official recognizing that the law is a merely a baseline defining the minimum that is required of officeholders. There is nothing to prevent those public officials from going beyond those minimum requirements to better serve the public.
Rather than hiding behind the law in order to provide minimum access, Ms. Rafalko McNulty is going beyond it to provide maximum access. It is a truly commendable act of public service.