passopenrecords.org

Welcome to passopenrecords.org, a blog whose aims are (1) to promote a vigorous conversation around the bleak state of open records in the state of Pennsylvania and more importantly, (2) to get the legislature to change the law.

The time is overdue to make Pennsylvania’s public records open, available and accessible to the public. We have heard a lot recently about the fact that this state has one of the worst open records laws in the country. In fact, a survey a few years ago by the government watchdog group, Better Government Association, ranked Pennsylvania’s open records environment 48th of the 50 states. We were tied with Alaska, and only Alabama and South Dakota were considered worse. On the final report card, Pennsylvania had a GPA of 0.1 and a grade of F.

This needs to change. What distinguishes democracy is that it is built on the idea that governments, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, “derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.” For that to work, the people need to know what their government is doing so they can hold their representatives responsible for their actions. That can’t happen if those actions take place in secret and the public is kept in the dark or if they are denied access to information that they need and, in fact, own. That has all too often been the case in Pennsylvania.

Let’s be clear about one thing: at the end of the day, access to public records is not about the prerogatives of the press. It is about the rights of the people. Public records are not “owned” by the government, let alone by the bureaucratic department that produced them. Public records belong to the public. Period.

Right now, there is a something of a surge in Harrisburg for a new openness in government. One reason for that is the anger that still lingers over the infamous legislative pay grab of July 7,2005. Who would have thought that, almost two years later, people would still even remember the shoddy deal that took place behind closed doors at 2 in the morning with no public comment and has long since been repealed? Well, they remembered the next May when primary voters tossed out 17 incumbents, including Republicans Robert Jubelier and David Brightbill, the president pro tem and majority leader of the senate respectively. They remembered in November when they retired Mike Veon, the Democratic whip, and several others. And they have been forcefully reminded once again of the insidious nature of public secrecy by the recent efforts of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency to keep the lid on the hundreds of thousands of dollars its board spent on retreats that featured private air transport to fancy resorts and $150 cigars. PHEAA fought for years to keep its records from the public, appealing all the way to the state supreme court and personally suing the reporter who was working on the story.

But public memory is historically short, and so this is an opportunity we must not let pass. Just as Robert Hutchins, the legendary president of the University of Chicago, is reputed to have said, “Whenever I feel the urge to exercise, I lie down until it passes,” so many of our public officials would probably like nothing better than to lie low until the current interest in reform passes and they can get back to business as usual.

I’ll write more in the days ahead about the major reasons for the seeming change of heart in Harrisburg, about why the new spirit may not last long, and about why this issue appeals across such a broad political and ideological spectrum.

In the meantime, just as public records belong to the public, so this conversation is open to everyone. Please join in.

– Jamie Blaine, Blog Editor