Let me know . . .
Jun 8th, 2007 by JamieB
One of the things I have been trying to do of late with this blog is to keep you all updated with as full a sampling as possible of right-to-know stories, articles and editorials from around the state. Since so much is happening on this front right now, this exercise can produce pretty long postings (such as today’s) – and it takes even longer to write than it does to read. But I want this site to be a “go-to” place for open records . . so please let me know if you think this is useful and would like to see it continue.
Thanks.
I have condensed the stories below, but you can click on any link to read the full published piece.
Carl Lavin, Deputy Managing Editor, Philadelphia Inquirer
Right to Know
If a news organization is gong to collect and make available data sets of information from public sources, one important step is to support a strong right-to-know law. Pennsylvania now has what is widely considered one of the worst laws and compliance with even that law is spotty. Agencies that do studies on their own problems, from the police to schools to the Department of Human Services, often fail to release those studies to the public, hiding their problems instead of helping increase public pressure to solve them.
A hearing in Harrisburg on Monday considered these questions. I talked about the babies who died in DHS care while the department and the city of Philadelphia refused to make public their own reviews that pointed out the egregious flaws in department policies and procedures. Only after The Inquirer did a series of investigatory articles did the city start to make more of this information public.
Pa. adds detailed reports to online restaurant inspections
By Martha Raffaele, Associated Press
The state Agriculture Department has revamped its online database of restaurant records so consumers can read complete inspection reports on the eateries.
The 18-month-old database previously allowed people to see only whether the more than 23,000 restaurants under the state’s jurisdiction had passed inspection. It provided no other details, department spokesman Chris Ryder said Tuesday.
“It is a public record, and we now have the technology to allow people immediate access to that,” Ryder said.
The department began posting restaurant inspection records online six months after The Morning Call of Allentown reported in July 2005 that oversight of the state’s restaurants was haphazard and that the frequency of inspections varied widely.
The newspaper had to file written requests under the state’s Right-to-Know Law to get 200,000 food inspection records. An analysis of 78,000 of those records found public health agencies in Pennsylvania often do not provide the most basic monitoring of food establishments and are hampered by an inadequate number of inspectors and a disorganized record-keeping system.
Big boost for open-records initiative
By Mark Scolforo, Associated Press
The state Senate’s majority leader threw his support yesterday behind a proposal to drastically change Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law by presuming all government records are open beyond a list of exceptions.
State Sen. Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware) . . . said he plans to amend his bill in the State Government Committee as soon as possible.
Pileggi’s willingness to amend his bill eliminates a potential roadblock for those who favor the flip of presumption - and his stature as majority leader in the Senate provides momentum to the records-law reform efforts.
Exceptions could still prevent access to a range of government-held information, from police investigative materials and personal medical records to Social Security numbers and credit card numbers. Developing such a list will undoubtedly draw intense interest from lobbying groups, state and local governments, public-access advocates and the news media.
Pa. still lagging on open records reform
Change is a priority for some lawmakers; universities oppose it
By Tracie Mauriello, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In Ohio, recordings of 911 calls are open to public inspection.
In Connecticut, residents can scrutinize public school teachers’ disciplinary records.
In North Carolina, state employees’ e-mail messages – even those sent from home computers – are considered open records if they pertain to public business.
In Pennsylvania, though, a weak Right-to-Know law has prevented disclosure of such things as the location of a proposed above-ground natural gas line, the salary of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, copies of preliminary school budgets, a list of dangerous intersections and the names of police officers involved in shootings.
Hazleton told to release police scores
Terrie Morgan-Besecker, Times-Leader
The state Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of a court ruling that directed the city to release the civil service test scores of police candidates to The Times Leader.
The decision, issued Thursday, is a significant victory for the public’s right to know and will impact police departments statewide, said Ralph Kates, attorney for The Times Leader.
The newspaper filed suit in 2005 in Luzerne County Court, alleging the city violated Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Act when it refused a reporter’s request to release the scores of candidates who took the test, which consists of a written and oral exam and physical agility test.
The newspaper had sought the information, arguing it was important that the public have access to the scores to ensure the candidates who were hired were chosen because of their qualifications and not their political affiliation.
The paper maintained the scores were a matter of public record. But the city and the state Fraternal Order of Police, which joined the city’s efforts to fight the suit, argued the release of information would violate the candidates’ right to privacy.
The high court’s decision lets stand an Oct. 12, 2006, ruling by the state’s Commonwealth Court, which ruled the scores were public record. That decision reversed a 2005 ruling by Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan that dismissed the paper’s suit.
High-ranking GOP senator boosts hope for Pa. open records law
By Kari Andren, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Advocates for a stronger open records law received a major boost Monday when a powerful senator decided to change his bill to place burden of proof for releasing records on the government rather than on citizens.
Sen. Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware County, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in an interview he has reversed course on a key provision of legislation aimed at improving the state’s Right to Know law.
Price of secrecy
Herald-Standard
The top brass at the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency can toss a $409,000 legal bill onto its bonfire of abuse of public money. That’s the amount PHEAA spent trying to keep its spending secret from three probing media organizations.
It took 19 months and spending $65,000 of their own money, but the Harrisburg Patriot News, The Associated Press and WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh prevailed in court. The prime beneficiary ever since has been the public, which finally got a glimpse into PHEAA’s onerous spending habits. Those included $860,000 spent on fancy resorts in a five-year period, chartering a Lear jet and paying for an employee’s $128 tuxedo rental.
But the larger moral of this story is how, in the absence of an open records law with real teeth, public entities like PHEAA can stack the deck against anyone wishing to examine how they do business. They can afford to spend $409,000 in court, something the average person with a desire to obtain information can’t dream of doing. So most of the time, the PHEAAs of the world win by default.
Getting closer on open records law
The Sentinel, Carlisle
It’s heartening to see that after the voter revolt of 2006, the General Assembly really seems to have gotten with the people’s program of more openness in government.
Following a hearing on a right-to-know bill sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, Pileggi announced that he would change his position on his own legislation.
Why is this a major step? The more citizens know about the decisions their legislators make and how they made them, the better choices they, in turn, can make come election time. Despite what many elected officials seem to fear, transparency in government is beneficial to both the governed and the governing.
As much as we favor openness in government - whether it be records or meeting of elected bodies - we agree with Pileggi and others that not all records should be open. Police investigative materials, private information such as Social Security numbers and medical details should be protected. We support his statement, though, that the list of exceptions should be developed with input from a wide range of people.
Pennsylvanians have had enough of government being the sole decider of what is secret and what is not.
Pa. schools resist access proposal
Kari Andren, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
They get significant state money, but the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State and Temple should not be held to the same standards as government agencies when it comes to allowing public access to information, university officials said Monday.
Penn State President Graham Spanier told a Senate panel that adding the universities to the Right-to-Know law “would have serious unintended consequences not in the best interests of the commonwealth.”
He cited concerns regarding contract negotiations, donor confidentiality and releasing details of faculty pay – including football coach Joe Paterno’s salary, the subject of a lawsuit before the state Supreme Court.
“What we are concerned about is the impact that opening up university salaries would have on Penn State’s ability to compete in a global marketplace for the best faculty and research scientists,” Spanier said.
Spanier and the other university representatives believe they are adequately accountable to the public, and should not be included in Pileggi’s bill.
In written testimony submitted for Pitt, Paul Supowitz, vice chancellor for governmental relations, said “the public is entitled to know how the university makes use of the funds provided by the commonwealth. However, inclusion in the broadly mandated disclosure requirements of a full open records provision will have very unnecessary and detrimental results for the University of Pittsburgh.”
Pitt and Penn State emphasized concern about their status as competitive research universities.
Transparency through tougher open records law would lead to informed citizens in Pennsylvania
Harrisburg Patriot-News
What with everything else that’s going on, trying to get Pennsylvania to join the 21st century in allowing the public access to public documents without having to run through an obstacle course or apologize for being interested in what government is doing probably doesn’t rank high on most people’s lists of needed “reforms.”
But how could you have any serious measure of reform without opening up government (read “public”) records to easy access and scrutiny?
Putting a citizen-friendly Open Records law on the books may not be politically sexy, but it is essential.
Transparent government is better government. And that should be the ultimate guiding principle of reform, which at long last appears to be the case.
Nothing complex about openness
Pennsylvania only state that puts burden on public
Times-Tribune, Scranton
Every state other than Pennsylvania has figured out how to make sure that government records are open to public access, by law, without jeopardizing citizens’ privacy. That’s why Pennsylvania’s public disclosure laws remain the weakest in the nation.
The underlying problem with Pennsylvania’s open-records law – what makes it contradictory to the disclosure laws of other states – is that it is upside down. Instead of establishing a premise that government records are open to the public that owns them, the law protects politicians by narrowly defining what constitutes an open record. Citizens, then, are left with the burden of proof when they seek any public record that does not clearly fit the narrow definitions.
There is no mystery, and nothing complicated, about what must be done to create open government in Pennsylvania. The presumption under the law must be changed so that government records are presumed to be open, with a few obvious exceptions, and the burden for proving otherwise is left to the government officials trying to keep them closed.
Eatery inspection reports are online
State provides all safety information it has. Morning Call probe prompted action.
By Tim Darragh, The Morning Call of Allentown
Complete inspection reports on restaurants, cafeterias and food retailers in Pennsylvania are appearing for the first time on a state government Web site, giving consumers vital information about the cleanliness and safety of places where they eat and shop.
The state Department of Agriculture, which oversees food inspections in much of Pennsylvania, Tuesday unveiled a Web site that provides consumers with full copies of the inspection reports. No information is cut out, according to Agriculture spokesman Chris Ryder. Previously, the department’s site only listed whether food establishments were in compliance.
”Giving the consumer more information allows the market to really work,” said Bill Marler, a Seattle lawyer who has represented hundreds of people sickened or killed in outbreaks caused by contaminated food. ”What you’re doing is allowing consumers to do what people do in a capitalist society. They make their own decisions with information. But without the information, the market doesn’t work.”
Public records belong to you
Erie Times-News
After the July 2005 pay-raise debacle and the November 2006 election that showed many Pennsylvania legislators the door, Pennsylvanians might have expected Harrisburg to eagerly embrace an expanded open-records law and make passage a certainty. Oh, but old habits die hard.
Proponents of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association’s new open records offensive have two important Pennsylvania political leaders pushing hard for more aggressive open-records legislation: Gov. Ed Rendell and Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware.
So as this debate continues with hearings by the Senate State Government Committee this week, some legislators actually want to put on the brakes.
“If we think we’re going to come up with the bill in the next weeks or months that’s going to solve everything, I think we’re naive,” said Rep. Kerry A. Benninghoff, R-Centre, a House Speaker’s Legislature Reform Commission member.
“I also believe it would be better to be a little more cautious and expand as times goes on.”
This is just the old-guard thinking that holds government documents were created for public officials to keep under lock and key. And the old guard could delay and fake and even kill expanded open-records legislation this year for no better reason than just because.
Newspaper: Taxpayers paid for Phila. lawmaker’s NYC trip
The Associated Press
Most lawmakers do not expect the public to pay for them to attend annual Christmastime Pennsylvania Society weekends in New York City, but state Rep. Mark Cohen, D-Philadelphia, has billed taxpayers $2,000 for his trips to the party weekend over the past three years, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
Cohen said most private-sector employees charge their employers for attending the weekend of black-tie soirees and cocktail parties, and he did not see why legislators should not do the same, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
“I have not engaged in any political activity whatsoever at any meeting of the Pennsylvania Society,” Cohen told the newspaper. “There are political events that occur and I have not attended any of them.”
Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer