“We’re the worst”
May 30th, 2007 by JamieB
A lot has been happening on the open records front lately . . . and a lot needs to be done. As you will see from the reports below, the evidence keeps mounting that we need a new, consistent, statewide Right-to-Know law, and we need it now.
For one thing, Pennsylvania has gone from one of the worst states in the nation on the matter of open records to THE worst, said Rep. Tim Mahoney, Democrat of Fayette County.
As Brad Bumstead wrote in the May 25th edition of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:
Pennsylvania is the only state where the legislature, lawmakers and legislative agencies are exempt from public records laws, an analysis by a national research group shows.
It’s one of only seven states that exempt the institution of the General Assembly, says a report presented to a special House panel Thursday by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
“We’re the worst,” said Rep. Tim Mahoney, a Democrat from Uniontown, Fayette County.
As the Speaker’s Commission on Legislative Reform listened to testimony about strengthening the state’s open records law, Bob Guzzardi, a conservative reformer sitting in the audience, angrily asked why lawmakers haven’t passed such a bill in the nearly two years since the failed legislative pay raise that infuriated voters.
“It’s crystal clear legislators are terrified of being under the same scrutiny as the executive branch,” said Guzzardi, a Philadelphia businessman.
Lawmakers on the panel appeared nervous about the prospect of a tougher law that might make public their e-mail. Guzzardi said he’d like to see e-mails between lawmakers and lobbyists pertaining to the 2004 slots law.
Thirty-three states make legislative e-mail accessible to people, said Pam Greenberg, an analyst for the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures.
Newspapers in Ohio and Florida have obtained lawmakers’ e-mails under open records laws, she said.
That could have “a chilling effect on people asking for help from legislators,” said Democratic Rep. Phyllis Mundy, of Luzerne County.
But, said Greenberg, “In a majority of the states, public records (laws) do apply to the legislators.”
Bumstead also cited the following from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Please note which states appear on all three lists. (Hint: there is only one, and it starts with a P.)
Inaccessible records
• States where open records laws do not apply to legislatures: Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Georgia, Delaware
• States that exempt individual lawmakers from such laws: Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Kansas, Oklahoma
• States exempting legislative agencies: Pennsylvania (in Minnesota it’s unclear)
State court denies school district’s appeal
IT’S OVER: The New Castle Area School District exhausts appeals in case against the New Castle News, reads the headline of Pat Litowitz’s story in that newspaper.
The state Supreme Court spurned the New Castle Area School District efforts to overturn an historic open records law ruling.
In an order issued Tuesday, May 22, 2007, the court denied the district’s petition for allowance of appeal in a case involving the New Castle News. The News had successfully fought in court to obtain information on the details of a settlement regarding the district and two families.
According to an Associated Press story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Supreme Court refused to hear the school district’s appeal of a lower court ruling that it had engaged in “wanton and willful disregard” of the New Castle News’ right to a public record
Litowitz’s reporting has three quotes well worth pondering:
• “From a practical standpoint, I think it’s going to have the effect of making school districts and municipalities take a harder look before refusing to produce requested information,” said James Manolis, the attorney for the newspaper, who added that “case gives an added level of comfort to those who are denied information.”
• “It sends a clear message that … don’t ever as a municipal authority or a school district, whatever the case may be, enter into an agreement in which there is a confidentiality provision because the courts are going to overturn that,” said the school district’s solicitor, Charles Sapienza, who also noted “From a personal perspective, government is open, should be open, and must remain open to the public in all aspects. No question about that.”
• “We are pleased that the Supreme Court has upheld the position that the public’s business is best conducted in public,” News Publisher Max Thomson said. “I am sad that the school district decided to waste so many taxpayer dollars trying to keep information away from the patrons of the district.”